


A Good Ship

by Xipholynx



Category: One Piece
Genre: (technically) underaged drinking, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Found Family, Humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2019-09-18 05:38:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 74,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16989060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xipholynx/pseuds/Xipholynx
Summary: Reincarnation doesn't always land you in the same type of body as your previous one. Luffy sets sail from his home in a living ship and goes on a journey to "gather a crew, find the greatest treasures, have the greatest adventures and become King of the Pirates." AUCrossposted at fanfiction.net





	1. Chapter One: A Pirate and His Ship

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, settings, etc. of One Piece are the property of Oda Eiichiro. No copyright infringement is intended.

**_"Wherever we want to go, we go. That's what a ship is, you know. It's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails. That's what a ship needs. But what a ship is… what the Black Pearl really is… is freedom." - Captain Jack Sparrow_ **

Early in the morning of the fifth of May which coincided with the seventeenth birthday of a certain boy named Monkey D Luffy many things around the world were happening.

In the New World the four Yonko had a surprisingly low key day all things considered for them. Big Mom enjoyed a decadent picnic on Jelly Island in her territory. Kaido drank a galleon's worth of of sake and had one of his energetic cheerful drunk moods. Whitebeard drank a brig's worth of sake which was smuggled in by his sons even under the watchful eye of his mother hen of a doctor's surveillance. Then, of course, there was Shanks who drank a sloop's worth of sake just because he was in a partying sort of mood.

At the Marine Headquarters on the other hand the Fleet Admiral and all three Admirals of the marines separately began to encounter headache inducing problems. Sengoku's problem involved his (regrettably) closest friend Monkey D Garp breaking down (another) wall to enter his office in order to announce that he was immediately going to be taking a trip to visit the East Blue (again) instead of patrolling the Grand Line like what was required from him.

Admiral Kizaru found that an entire filing cabinet worth of files full of Marine supply routes and out of the way service stations had completely vanished after a new blond lieutenant with a burn scar had volunteered to put them away for him so he would be free to take a quick nap in his office. Losing those files was going to generate even more work for him now.

Admiral Akainu had found that a bonsai that he had been cultivating for over two decades had been completely removed of all its leaves which had then been sprinkled mockingly around the pot and the trunk had been whittled completely down into a mess of splinters. He eventually found, after interrogating the nearest office workers, that it could only have only been done by a new blond lieutenant with a burn scar and no one had gotten the lieutenant's name.

Admiral Aokiji suddenly had to deal with about three years worth of reports suddenly appearing on his desk indicating sightings of a certain Nico Robin appearing in the Grand Line, indicating she had probably left the West Blue at least two years before that. She was apparently cozying up to a bounty hunting group known as Baroque Works and was in close proximity to a certain Grand Line kingdom known for its ancient history and hidden poneglyph. He silently despaired and wondered why that girl wouldn't stay hidden somewhere modern for once instead of an ancient and historically significant world government kingdom.

The fresh wave of rookie pirates that would one day soon be referred to by the world as the Supernova Generation were already making their way into or just beginning to make their names known all across the world as they began to cross into Paradise.

With no way of knowing that a force of nature unparalleled since the time of Roger himself would soon be intersecting in their lives and scattered all across the East Blue, the future crew of Monkey D Luffy somehow were independently of each other having pretty bad days. Truly there was nothing like being tied up or being forced to be a slave to an island invading pirate to really put the spice back in your life. Regardless of the things occurring around the world and locally Luffy in the meantime was ready to leave home and nothing was going to stop him.

Nothing but his ridiculous ship anyway.

"DAWNIE! YOU'RE TOO BIG! I wanted to sail out for the first time in something smaller like Ace's ship!"

The small crowd which had gathered at the docks of Fuusha Village was treated to the sight and sound of their somewhat beloved village idiot shouting up at a large beautiful ship. It had an intricately carved figurehead that resembled a dragon's head with a mouth that grinned wide with sharp pointy teeth and wings up along the rail all the way back to the aft. The hull of the ship was a rich green, with smooth, flowing lines from bow to stern. The primary mast held large, white and yellow sails while slightly smaller, triangular, purple sails were up on the shorter foremast. Really it put to shame most other ships that had ever been docked at the village and it was close to the same size as the Red Force which had famously docked at Fuusha Village a decade prior.

It was also much to big to be sailed by a single person.

"I just wanted you to see how big I can be. I can shrink down a lot but my insides will shift and you'll have to stay up on the deck since I won't have any room for you on the inside."

The quiet whispering voice was only heard by a few and so the majority of the crowd gasped in shock when the large ship began to shrink before their very eyes down to a smaller one of only about thirty feet long from bow to aft with just a single mast with a square white sail in the center of the deck. The dragon figurehead seemed to be pouting now instead of sporting the previous proud grin.

Mayor Woop Slap lived up to his name and smacked Luffy in irritation across the back of his head, taking care to avoid displacing the golden straw hat, while he launched into a lecture, "You little hooligan, I knew you were up in that jungle learning magic tricks from a mountain witch."

Luffy didn't react to being smacked since he was made of rubber and said with conviction, "I don't have magic tricks just rubber ones. Good idea though mayor. I'll look for a magician for my crew and a musician."

Woop Slap rolled his eyes and muttered, "Running off to be a pirate like this on a bewitched ship. What kind of reputation will you give to our village like this?"

Luffy couldn't stop the smile from growing on his face as he declared, "Doesn't matter because no matter what I'm going to be the King of the Pirates! Just you wait Shanks. I'm setting sail today!"

"Bye Luffy!" Makino waved her hand to her departing younger brother figure with a sunny, proud smile on her face, "I hope you get to go where no one else has ever gone, do what others have never done, live like others have never lived and make sure to come back one day to tell me all about it!"

"I sure will Makino! Take care of Dadan since she'll come down to the village when she feels lonely, won't you?" Luffy requested.

"I will, don't worry. Get going now." Makino encouraged.

With an enthusiastic standing jump Luffy landed in the center of the deck of his ship and pumped both fists up into the air, "Time for us to go Dawn! Let's go on an adventure and make some friends! I want to sail you until we get out of the bay though!"

"Fine, fine. If you fall in the water I'll pull you up with a net like you're a fish though," the shrunken down ship threatened without any heat.

Luffy happily adjusted Dawn's sails and managed to do so without tangling any lines. Her sail caught the breeze coming down of Mt Colubo and Luffy took hold of the helm in order to sail out to the edge of the bay where it spilled into the open sea. Before too long Luffy reached the furthest he had even been in the bay and stopped Dawn's movement to lie in wait for his fated opponent. He couldn't hear any sounds from the village this far out, just the sound of water hitting the hull of Dawn and the still familiar sounds of seagulls crying out what seemed to be warnings. Luffy grinned.

"Ah, the weather sure is nice today, don't you think so Dawn?" Luffy seemed to be eager for something to happen. The water rippled and a face that was scaly, grey and at least ten feet long poked its head up out of the water before it straight out growled at Luffy.

"There you are, sea monster. I was waiting for you. Let me show you what I've learned over the past ten years." With a wide grin Luffy wound up his arm and punched the Lord of the Coast in the face with a shout of, "Rubber Pistol!"

After taking care of the barracuda shaped sea monster Luffy let Dawn take over sailing as he laid back flat on the deck and let out a loud and very stretchy yawn. He had already been awake for hours before the sun had risen out of his excitement over the beginning of his journey and the ebbs and swells of the sea were rapidly pulling him to unconsciousness.

"Go find us an adventure while I take a nap, won't you? Oh and try not to sink or else we'll both die," Luffy lackadaisically gave his first order as a captain on the sea.

"I won't sink, just go to sleep future pirate king," Dawn huffed as her sail caught a breeze and she began to travel westward. Luffy pulled his hat over his eyes to shield them from the sun and instantly fell fast asleep.

After a few hours of event-less travel, which was accompanied by the snoring coming from Luffy, Dawn heard a loud cracking sound and focused her attention over in the direction from which it came. A shape was just visible along the western horizon and after adjusting her sail to go towards it faster the details of the shape became clearer.

"Another ship," Dawn mused out loud and focused on the ensign on top of the other ship's main mast which sported an elongated grinning skull superimposed over a crossed pair of bones on a black background and corrected, "Another pirate ship. I'm sure Luffy can find an adventure over there. Luffy! Adventure!"

At the loud sound of Luffy's third favorite word (after 'meat' and 'brother' but slightly in front of 'hat' and 'nakama') he opened his eyes and tilted his hat up in order to squint up at the sky. "Huh? Dawn? Is that a weird ostrich or a flying panda?"

"A what?" Dawn asked.

There was another cracking sound from the pirate ship which Dawn suddenly realized was actually the sound of a gunshot and there was a sudden heavy thud as something very big hit the deck in front of Luffy. It was a very fluffy feathered bird with black and white feathers in a pattern similar to a panda's with a giant white beak almost a meter long. Its body was longer than Luffy was tall and it must have had a wingspan of at least seven meters. It was also bleeding sluggishly from a gunshot wound right at the junction between it's right wing and shoulder socket.

"Oh, its hurt. What happened to it!? Wait this is a mystery bird! Cool, you're the best Dawnie! You found an adventure so fast!" Luffy cheered as he gave Dawn's mast a triple wrapped hug in joy and shook it in excitement.

"BALLOON! Run away! Fly far away!" A forceful girl's voice shouted from high up on the deck of the pirate ship.

"Woah! A pirate ship and you're trying to run away? Are you about to abandon your friend up there?" Luffy asked crossly as he shook his hand at the bird an irritated scolding motion.

The bird glared at Luffy and produced an irritated squawking "gwaah" before using its giant beak to bite Luffy's head which simply squished like a compressed marshmallow and reinflated once the bird released him.

A different slightly wheezing voice from high up the other ship's deck interrupted Luffy and the bird from further messing around with each other.

"Straw hat youngin'! Carry that bird onto the deck, please."

"Well he did say please. I haven't heard of a polite pirate since Ace left. I'm going up! Come with me weird bird!" Luffy grabbed the bird with one arm and prepared to climb up the rope ladder that was dropped over the side of the galleon's hull.

"Luffy don't forget to take a lure with you so I can find you when you run off. The ocean's a lot bigger than the mountain and I could lose you if you don't," A lizard that looked like it was made out of green leaves and tiny purple and yellow flowers landed on top of Luffy's straw hat with a barely audible pliffing sound.

"Okay Dawnie, just don't let it eat my hat while its up there," Luffy lectured even as he crossed his eyes to look at the leafy lizard now hanging out just on the edge of the brim of his hat.

The leaf lizard stuck a vine tongue out at Luffy and said with an identical voice as the ship's, "I'd never do such a thing. Straw is gross anyway."

"I hope I make a new friend! Up we go then!" Luffy cheered even as he scaled up the ladder to the deck of the galleon pirate ship.

As soon as Luffy arrived on the deck of the other pirate ship four rather burly pirates dove at the panda bird and began hustling it to a cage up by the galleon's forecastle deck right across from the main mast. There, looking about as angry as a forcibly restrained cat, was a teenage girl tied up in a way that seemed almost nostalgic to Luffy. She had apple fleshed skin, licorice black eyes and wore her short cotton candy blue hair back with a pair of pink clips on both sides of her head. Her voice carried clear through the air even above the loud talking and shouting of the pirates on the deck.

"How dare you! Why'd you bring Balloon back here?"

"Balloon?" Luffy replied even as he sat on the rail of the other ship closer to the girl.

The girl's eyes were as sharp as polished black ice as she continued her accusations toward Luffy, "He got caught by them because of you! You brought him up here - I was watching!"

Luffy's own eyes lit up as he finally connected the dots of information he was provided, "Oh, is the flying panda's name Balloon then?"

"HE'S NOT A PANDA!" The captured girl's teeth seemed as sharp as daggers as she snarled even more savagely at Luffy.

Luffy carried on his conversation without a single change in his demeanor or tone of voice, "He was shot and landed on Dawn ya know."

"That's 'cause he was shot by Hexagon Spiel."

"Spiel? Who's that?"

"This ship's captain. He's a black magic user and a pirate. He invaded the village I was living in and even though all the people the raised arms to fight him off he used his magic and was able to completely massacre them. No one could even get close to him."

"Captain on deck!" One of the pirates shouted and they gathered crew stood in rank and file in two groups leading up to the mast causing Luffy to frown in displeasure. Why the heck a pirate crew was acting like a bunch of boring marines was a mystery he wasn't in particularly interested in investigating. The girl explained their weird behavior anyway.

"That's him - Hexagon Spiel. Even his crew is absolutely terrified of him. It's because of him the village I lived in was destroyed. If you fight him, he'll kill you." The girl seemed terrified and her voice quivered but Luffy was unmoved by her act. She wasn't struggling like he had done when he had been tied up and terrified for his life like that after all. More important to him though was the other pirate captain.

The approaching pirate didn't seem very old but he had a false smile that exposed hippopotamus like teeth in a wide thin lipped grin. His complexion was like the inside of a jackfruit with skin that seemed to be stretched tightly over a long oval face and he had a long thin scar over the left side of his face that bisected over his eye without losing it. He wore his mottled wheat colored hair in a hairstyle of six pigtails, a black tricorn hat on top of his head and carried an old broom in his left hand while wearing a pair of pistols stashed in a sash around his waist. When he finally spoke his voice was both reedy and a bit wheezy.

"You're... the one who helped capture the roc. Thank you youngin'... Ahhahhahhah!"

Luffy stared fixated on Spiel's face before abruptly lifting his hand to point and matter-of-factly declaring, "You have a funny looking head."

The captive girl and assembled pirate crew gaped equally aghast at Luffy's insulting statement with only the captive girl having enough of her senses to shout, "Stupid! Did you listen to a single thing I said!?"

The leafy lizard on top of Luffy's hat hissed in either glee or warning and Luffy started to laugh, "Shishishishi, but look at him!"

Even as Luffy continued to laugh and the girl continued to rage at him a vein of fury popped up on Spiel's forehead and with a snarl ordered, "IMPRISON THOSE FOOLS RIGHT NOW!"

Not five minutes later Luffy and the girl were locked together in the ship's brig. The underling pirate who locked them up parted with a teasing grin as he put the keys on the ring next to the door and said, "Be good kids and try not to have too much fun down here."

Luffy happily looked out from a porthole and said, "Ooh, what a great view."

The girl sat hugging her legs and sulking angrily on the floor by the bars of their shared cell and muttered, "I wanna kill you."

Alarmed by her statement Luffy's eyes widened and he blurted, "Please don't."

"This is all your fault. Who are you anyway?" The girl demanded even as she glared up at him.

"Me? I'm Monkey D Luffy. Who're you?"

"Ann. Just Ann. Now how am I supposed to get Balloon out of here?" Ann worried planning to ignore Luffy now that their introductions were out of the way.

Luffy however was not one to be ignored, "Balloon? That big ostrich of yours?"

"He's not an ostrich! He's a roc!" Ann seemed to transition from angry to wistful very quickly as she spoke in a more gentle tone of voice, "I've been with him as far back as I can remember. We played together, slept together, traveled together and were never apart. To others he might just be a bird but to me he's someone I can trust more than anything else in the world. My very best friend. I just want to free Balloon and never feel caged ever again."

Luffy stared at Ann in silence for a few seconds before nodding and saying, "I see then. Why were you kidnapped by these guys?"

"It's because I'm cute," Ann replied with an accompanying wink and sparkle effect. The effect was lost on Luffy though whose expression didn't change a bit. Trying to distract his line of thinking she continued, "Forget about that. What about you? Why'd you set sail and what's with the weird lizard on your hat?"

Thrilled to segway into his favorite of all topics to talk about Luffy wore a huge grin as he proudly declared, "Me? I'm going to gather a crew, find the greatest treasures, have the greatest adventures and I'm going to be the King of the Pirates! And Dawn here is going to be my ship though the entire journey and beyond!"

Ann looked at the lizard on Luffy's hat and then back down to stare at Luffy's completely excited and serious face. Upon coming to the realization that she was trapped in the brig with a mad man she very carefully pointed out, "You realize that is a lizard and not a ship, right?"

"I'm actually a plant not a ship. This is a lizard shaped lure," Dawn finally spoke through the lizard causing Ann to make a noise like mouse encountering a tiger by mistake.

Luffy laughed and plucked the lizard off the brim of his hat in order to bring it closer to Ann's face so she could see it better, though she shrunk away from him a bit, "This is a little thing Dawn can make with which lets her find me when I leave. When I was a little kid I was almost killed a couple of times. One of those times I was thrown into a jungle at night. That was when Dawn was only a plant that lived in a tree and she used these things to bring food from further away than she could reach since she was stuck in the tree. She almost ate me by accident but when I talked to her she became my first friend instead. A while later I got my hat from the person who inspired me to become a pirate. This hat is my object of treasure and Dawn is my first treasure."

"Aw, you're my first treasure too, Luffy," Dawn said through the lizard with the fondness carrying clearly in her tone of voice.

The entire time Luffy spoke Ann listened but fixated her eyes on the smiling lizard-like plant. It flicked its vine like tongue out at her and Ann couldn't help but smile, "It does smell really nice. The scent actually reminds me a little of spikenard. So she's your treasure, huh?"

"Yep. Though I don't know what spikenard is," Luffy said even as he twirled his hat with his free hand in a playful mood, "What's yours?"

"If that's the case then mine's Balloon," Ann said with a satisfied smile.

Luffy though, within a millisecond after asking his question, had already been distracted by a fantastic sight out the porthole window, "Oh wow, a whale! I've never seen one before!"

"Listen for the answer when you ask a question, idiot!" Ann yelled before deciding it would be in her best interest to ignore Luffy for the time being before she actually did start to actively plot how to murder him out of irritation.

Luffy watched the whale pass by and followed that by trying to find ways to entertain himself. He started off trying to be active by pacing the cell and squeezing the plant lizard's tail which caused a pleasant floral scented spray to mist out and freshen up the stale air but lost the enthusiasm to do so after a few minutes. Then he pretended to play an imaginary accordion but couldn't figure out how the keys went. He played with the plant lizard again by repeatedly moving his hands around a foot away from each other to let the lizard lump from 'ledge to ledge' before winding down and letting it settle up on his hat again. He did a handstand for about thirty minutes before the blood rushing to his head gave him a headache and made him stop. He demanded for Dawn to tell him a pirate story which was fun and interesting enough to capture Ann's attention for a while. Following the story of "The Treasure Planet" he sang an extremely out of tune version of one of the songs from said story. He practiced picking the lock on the door for a few minutes and then finally fell face down on the floor and tried to take another nap. After only ten minutes he decided that napping wasn't working.

"...I'm bored and hungry. I'm getting out of here to find something to eat and then I'm going to go back to Dawn." Luffy announced as he yawned and stood up.

Ann sighed and said, "Stop dreaming, there's no way you can leave."

"Oh that's true. Dawnie stayed behind so it might take a while for her to get here," Luffy realized, "I'm still hungry though."

"What I meant was that we can't get out of this cell," Ann corrected as she rolled her eyes at him. She then noticed him standing outside the bars of the cell and shouted, "What!? How did you get out? Let me out too!"

"The keys are right here," Luffy said and he picked the keys off the ring by the door and tossing them back to her. Ann caught them and unlocked the cell door to free herself.

"Hey, so does this mean that you can do magic like Spiel?" Ann asked with curiosity.

"Nope. It's not magic though it might be similar. Where are you going?" Luffy asked noticing Ann going back towards the deck of the ship.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to rescue Balloon. Will you help me?" Ann asked.

"Not right now. I need to eat." Luffy rejected turning away from her.

"Help me!" Ann demanded.

"No, I'm hungry. Do it yourself if he's so important to you," Luffy said before he began to sniff at the air to find the ship's food storage over the scent of the now flowery scented brig.

"Stingy!" Ann shouted at Luffy as she made her way angrily out to the deck of the ship.

"Some people can be so impatient and demanding. Have you ever met anyone like that Dawnie?" Luffy complained up to Dawn as he made his way to the food storage hold.

The plant made a huffing sound and said, "Maybe once or twice in this life."

Up on the deck of the ship Ann crept around as carefully as she could to get close to Balloon's cage and grinned with delight upon seeing nearly the entire crew laying around in the late afternoon sun.

"Now's my chance to get Balloon," Ann whispered but stiffened when she heard the sound of a sword being drawn.

"You're craftier than I thought girl," Spiel said as he smirked mockingly at her and motioned for one of his men to step forward, "I'll give you a deal if you can defeat my bosun in combat with a cutlass I'll give you the key to the roc's cage and let you leave."

Ann narrowed her eyes and took a look at the stocky huge bosun smirking at her. She would free Balloon with this challenge no matter what so she nodded her head once in acceptance, "Fine. Give me a cutlass and I'll fight then."

Luffy had already eaten all the dried meat left out in the hold and was crunching his way through an armful of apples including the cores even as he carried a bigger sack filled to bulging with even more. As he wandered through the interior of the ship he sing-songed cheerfully to himself feeling especially pirate-like, "~Shiver my timbers, shiver my sides ~Yo ho, heave ho ~There are hungers as strong as the wind and tides ~Yo ho, heave ho ~Found food, good food.~ Ready to go Dawn?"

The lizard on the brim of his hat grinned again and said, "Yep, I'll be at the ship in half an hour or so. Try not to drown before I get there."

"You always say that and I never do," Luffy argued. "Does the lure-y need an apple?"

"Nah, you can let it wind down. I know the lure is almost out of energy but I can see the other ship from where I'm at so if it doesn't work I can still find you. See you again soon, Luffy."

Luffy shishishi-ed and shoved another apple into his mouth. Time to go back up to the deck then.

Ann in the meantime had laid out her opponent in their match with the cutlasses. She felt a lot of pride in her victory and said, "You looked down on me, 'cause I'm a teenage girl, didn't you? Now let Balloon go as you promised."

Spiel made a motion with his hand and Ann had to jump back when her downed opponent suddenly combusted into flame. Ann's eyes were wide and nervous thinking she might be set on fire too but Spiel's ire seemed only to be directed towards his subordinate as he chillingly hissed, "Scum. Losing to a little girl like that. I have no use for someone like you."

The rest of Spiel's crew stood as still as possible while still quivering and as a whole hoped their captain wouldn't turn his ire over on them. Instead of another flashy magical attack though the faint sound of clinking was heard as a key was dropped onto the deck in front of Ann. "One key to the winner as promised."

Ann smiled with delight as she picked up the key, not seeming to notice the malicious grin on Spiel's face as she practically skipped towards her caged friend, "Yeah! I did it Balloon! I'll let you out now!"

Craak!

Right as she reached the front of the open air cage the sound of the gun firing reached Ann before the bullet did and in a split second Ann allowed the bullet to hit. She landed face down on the deck just in front of Balloon who was distressed and screeching towards her in panic and worry. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes as she heard Spiel's crew laughing and mocking her even as Spiel loudly shouted, "Ahhahhahhah! Who's gonna let you take him out when we finally have him? Fool!"

"Huh, what's going on out here?"

The drama of the moment reached a peak as Luffy emerged from the hold of the ship, a sack laden with stolen food slung across his shoulder and no sign of the ten apples he had just consumed. Luffy's eyes zeroed in on the prone from of the girl in front of the cage and his expression went eerily blank as he dropped the sack of food at his feet.

"And just where are you heading off to, youngin'?" Spiel demanded drawing Luffy's attention over to him.

Without a single blink Luffy said, "It looks a bit like a mayfly. Your head, I mean."

While the jaws of everyone dropped again Luffy ignored them and walked over to where Ann laid belly down on the deck, "Hey, why are you trying to sleep when you're bleeding?"

Ann sat up, pointed to the bullet wound in her arm and shouted, "I was shot and fell down! I thought if I played dead for a little while I'd have a chanc-"

Luffy looked up and jumped in front of both Ann and Balloon even with a rat-a-tat-tat Spiel unloaded all the shots he had in two pistols at the annoying teens, all of them striking Luffy in the chest.

"Oh no!" Ann shrieked as she covered her mouth with her hands and tears pricked her eyes again. She hadn't wanted the charismatic boy to get hurt, let alone killed on her behalf.

Spiel arrogantly scoffed and said, "Learn your place, fool."

Luffy exhaled and the bullets bounced off leaving him completely unfazed. Spiel broke out into a cold sweat and stuttered out a shaky, "Wha-?"

Ann was equally astonished, "What just happened?"

Spiel's crew collectively bagan to have a nervous breakdown as they screamed, "He bounced back the bullets! Is it black magic!? Is he a black magic user like the captain!?"

"Magic hammer!" Spiel shouted transforming his broom into a giant mallet and crushing Luffy flatter than a pancake onto the deck of the ship.

Luffy decompressed instantly when the hammer was lifted and he crossly picked off the flattened lizard shaped lure off of his hat and crossly warned, "Cut that out or I'm gonna get mad. Your lucky this doesn't hurt Dawnie."

"No way!" Spiel shouted and climbed up the mast to the crows nest to escape Luffy in five seconds flat, "Get away from me you devil!"

"You're the one that started it," Luffy warned as he drew back his fist, "Oh and climbing up there is pretty useless."

The next thing Spiel saw was Luffy's fist just as it hit dead center on his face. Spiel and his broom fell with a clatter back onto the deck. Ann got to her feet and cautiously approached Luffy as Spiel's crew chattered in fear around them.

"Did you see it?"

"His arm, it stretched!"

"Are we having a dream?"

"What is this guy?"

It was Ann who he answered as she hesitatingly asked, "W-what exactly was it that you just did?"

Luffy's grin was as wide and bright as ever as he replied, "Isn't it funny. I told you earlier right? Before I got my hat I ate the Gomu-Gomu devil fruit. So now I'm made of rubber from head to toe in exchange for not being able to swim."

"You skipped that part in your story!" Ann shouted as she freaked out and watched Luffy stretch his cheek out approximately two feet to the side of his face.

"R-rubber man!?" Spiel's crew shouted even louder as they flipped out again.

"Gwaaah! Gwaaah!"

"No! Balloon!" Ann called out as she looked up.

Luffy and Spiel's crew followed the direction of her gaze up at the distressed bird noises to see Spiel up in the sky on his broom while holding Balloon captive with a chain. Up came the calls of his subordinates, "Captain!"

"Don't bother calling me that any longer, I have no use for you or this ship anymore. You stretch yourself there for the rest of your (short) life youngin'. I got the treasure I wanted and even though I was a little disgraced by your actions but I'm going to excuse myself now," Spiel's face twisted into a maniacal smile as he growled one last time, "Farewell rubber man. Sink with the ship!"

Spiel formed a gesture with his hand and with a crash what seemed to be an explosion cracked the giant galleon in half causing the crew, Ann, and Luffy to fall down into the ocean water below.

"Uwa! Water! Dawnie isn't here with a net- I'm gonna drown!" Luffy shouted and uselessly struggled for a bit before sinking into the sea.

"Balloon!" Ann cried looking up to where her friend was being lead further and further away into the sky. Ann hesitated for a moment but turned her gaze to the sea and dove down under the waves.

There was thirty seconds of relative silence while Spiel's surviving ex-crew found their way to surviving lifeboats and then with a spray of water Ann heaved Luffy up onto the barely floating deck of the destroyed galleon.

Luffy sputtered and blubbered as he shouted, "I was saved! Thank you, thank you so much for saving me! Dawn would've killed me if I drowned when she told me not to!"

Luffy's grateful thank yous stopped suddenly when he heard a tear splash down next to his head onto the deck and he looked to see Ann weeping with her hands pressed up to her eyes beside him. Not sure what to do since he hadn't ever encountered a crying girl he simply asked, "Hey?"

Ann broke down and explained as she sobbed, "Balloon...Balloon is probably the last roc that exists. A roc's blood is supposed to carry great magical power so that's what Spiel was after... that's why I was kidnapped because Spiel knew Balloon will always come after me when we're separated. I wish he wasn't magical or rare! Even if he wasn't special he'd still be my treasured best friend!"

Luffy stood up and as he wrapped his arm multiple times around the exposed mast of the cleaved ship said, "It's not over yet. Don't give up, you said it yourself, right? He's your treasure. I'll always help protect my crew's treasures."

Luffy tightened his hold and just barely heard Ann ask, "When did I join your crew, exactly?" before he launched high, high up into the sky in a direct arc towards the escaping Spiel.

Spiel in the meantime was congratulating himself on a job well done, "Ahhahhahhah! I sure know how to make a exit! Even if I fought a devil like that kid it'd do me no favors. All I need is the roc's blood and my power will increase tenfold!"

"Gwaaah! Gwaaah!"

Spiel felt tugging on the chain holding the roc and he scowled and turned to the roc as he scolded, "Hey now stop struggling, we've already come this far."

Luffy sat perched on the back of Balloon and waved his left hand at Spiel, "Yo!"

"What!? How did you-!?" Spiel sputtered but Luffy was already leaning over Balloon's head to touch and mess with the bristles of Spiel's flying broom.

"I envy you since you can fly. How's this thing work anyway?"

Spiel punched Luffy ineffectively in the head, displacing his hat by knocking it askew as he shouted, "Stop messing with things you don't understand youngin'!"

"Hey!" Luffy's left hand shot up from the broom bristles and caught Spiel's wrist in a vice grip. Spiel took a look at Luffy and his pallid complexion went even greyer as he unconsciously dropped his end of the chain that held the roc. The expression written across Luffy's face was a promise of a lot of pain. With the chilling voice of a truly dangerous pirate Luffy growled, "Don't you dare touch my treasure!"

Spiel suddenly realized he wasn't holding Balloon any longer and yelped, "Ack! The roc!"

"Don't worry, it'll be here soon," Luffy announced with a mischievous smile he might have learned from his brothers.

"What will!?" Spiel despaired as tears of fear dribbled down his face.

"My right hand." Luffy said. "Rubber High Caliber: Pistol!"

There was the sound of rubber smacking into a face after travelling a thousand yards and with a twinkle in the sky Spiel flew away, this time without his broom. The broom fell and so did Luffy but Balloon swooped down and saved him from taking a long dive into the sea.

"Thank you for not letting me fall but isn't there a better way for you to carry me?" Luffy asked, his head once again compressed like a beach ball in Balloon's beak as he returned to Ann who was waiting on the deck of Dawn since the galleon that had once been Spiel's ship had vanished already beneath the sea.

Balloon released Luffy when he was twenty feet above Dawn's deck and Luffy landed on his feet with a short laugh as Balloon settled down next to Ann with only the sound of a pleased croon upon his landing. Ann immediately clung to Balloon with a happy shout while Luffy looked on pleased with himself. The dragon figurehead of Dawn held a grin that was both cheery and proud.

While Balloon was preening gently at her wounded arm Ann, though she was thrilled to be reunited with her best friend, turned to look over to Luffy and asked, "What exactly are you trying to imply by claiming me as a member of your crew, Luffy?"

Luffy smiled and with excitement said, "Well since we're friends now and you're a nice person I thought you could be my second crew mate. You said you wanted to free Balloon and never feel caged again right? Balloon can join too."

"You realize you're asking me to become a pirate right?" Ann asked with a raised eyebrow and tone of skepticism in her voice, "Why would I do that when I can have Balloon fly me to a new island and not live a life on the run from the marines?"

"Aw, but that would be so boring. We should have too much fun together instead of trying not to have too much fun together like earlier," Luffy complained.

Ann stared was confused for a moment before she remembered what the pirate that locked she and Luffy up together had said before leaving the room and blushed as red as a setting sun, "Idiot! You actually listened to what the guy imprisoning you told you to do! You'll be caught by the marine's tomorrow without living more carefully!"

"We don't have to know what tomorrow holds. That's why we need to live our fullest lives today," Ann startled when the figurehead of Dawn twisted around to speak to her.

Balloon on the other hand, in reaction to the movement, floofed out his feathers and curled out his wings in the imitation of a frightened owl while making a startled, "Gwark!"

Luffy falling over as he laughed at Balloon's own over the top reaction caused the tension to finally leave Ann's frame as she took pity on her friend and soothed him with a few gentle strokes to his head. Balloon's instincts would have already kicked in and he would be pushing her to leave if he had sensed she wasn't in a safe place. How strange was her life that the first safe space after being attacked by a black magic using pirate would be on the ship of a devil fruit using pirate?

Ann stretched out her hand towards Luffy and said, "Fine. From your words I will seal the deal. Our word is true and not to break. We speak these words: a promise we make. As long as you never betray Balloon or me. As long as you keep your word to gather a crew, find the greatest treasures, have the greatest adventures and become the Pirate King. I will stay on your crew with these conditions. I will be permitted to leave should you break your promise to me."

"I promise," Luffy said with certainty and shook her hand to seal the deal. After releasing their hands from each other Luffy wiggled his fingers in amused curiosity and snickered, "Shishishi, cool my fingers feel funny. Dawn did you see that! I got a crewmate! Now let's go find an island of adventure! I'll be King of the Pirates before you know it! Ann, do you know where another island is?"

Ann shrugged and said, "Since we're in the Goa Region there are a few islands around that we can get to within a day or so. There's Goa Island, Goat Island, Goaf Island, Goal Island, Goaves Island, Goanna Island, and Dawn Island - which ironically is where the Goa Kingdom is located instead of on Goa Island. Goaf Island was where Spiel kidnapped me from so there wouldn't be much to see there aside from survivors fixing up a husk of a village. Where do you want to go?"

"Goat Island sounds like it has meat there!" Luffy declared, "Let's go there and eat goats! Go to Goat Island Dawnie!"

The figurehead of Dawn was facing forward but turned left and then right as the ship sensed the different directions before adopting a sheepish expression and saying, "I don't know how to get there. Do you happen to know where Goat Island is from here, Ann?"

Ann sighed heavily and hopped onto Balloon's back before saying, "Let me look around. How will we find each other after I find it though?"

"Here," Dawn said and smiled with the figurehead while from the top of the mast a lure made to look like a bird fluttered down like ripened fruit coming off a tree. It seemed to be shaped like a swallow, was predominately green but had purple and yellow flower patterns like the lizard shaped lure Luffy had used. It settled on top of Ann's head and Dawn's voice spoke from it when its beak opened, "This lure can go ahead with you. Just be sure to feed it something in about four hours or it will just become a bird shaped plant figurine. If something seems fun or exciting please don't finish up without giving Luffy a chance to experience it or he will pout and be a passive-aggressive pain until something fun happens to distract him again."

"Gotcha," Ann acknowledged and nodded her head towards Luffy who was poking at Balloon's beak, "See you again soon, Captain."

"Just call me Luffy since we're friends," Luffy insisted to which Ann nodded and took off with Balloon up into she sky. He watched a bit enviously for a moment before saying, "I want a bird friend to carry me too one day. Do you think Balloon will let me fly with him again soon?"

"Probably, just let him get used to you first. He is Ann's treasure first after all. She's laughing up there and he is too."

"Good. I like my crew to be happy. Now let's go to Goat Island! Meat ahead!" Luffy cheered as he pointed his hand towards the horizon and adventures to be had next.

To be continued

* * *

Up next: Luffy is disappointed to learn Goat Island doesn't actually have any goats. There's just pink things.

 


	2. Chapter Two: Escape from Goat Island

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, settings, etc. of One Piece are the property of Oda Eiichiro. No copyright infringement is intended.

**_The secret to happiness is freedom... And the secret to freedom is courage. - Thucydides_ **

Koby was fifteen years old and miserable.

Not because he was he was fifteen but because for the past two years he had been the unwilling cabin boy and even more unwilling personal occasional punching bag for the worst pirate he had ever met: Captain "Iron Mace" Alvida. She was cruel, brutish, vain and also completely delusional. Even worse was on top of everything else she had a standard of cleanliness that was somehow even stricter than the Official Marine Guidebook Standards. Koby knew this because he had memorized said guidebook a few years ago when his dreams had still seemed only difficult instead of actually impossible.

It seemed the only reason Alvida seemed to tolerate his presence on the crew (even though he was as spineless as a starfish) was because Koby could clean up nearly anything better than anyone else on the entire crew. The fact that he had basic navigational skills seemed marginally useful after that. Alvida had made the base of her pirate operations on the northeast side of Goat Island which was a fairly small island where rocks instead of sand covered the shoreline and a small but densely packed forest grew in the middle that was too difficult to pass through easily. Koby knew that there was a tiny town filled with fishermen and sail makers on the far southwest end of the island whose residents feigned blindness and deafness over the fact that pirates were around as long as they were left alone.

(The old timers knew it was only a matter of time before a certain Monkey returned to the area and kicked around the unsuspecting pirate captain. They were right in a sense - just not about which Monkey it would be.)

Koby had completed his duties for the day having scrubbed the deck of Alvida's ship to be spotless and following that cleaned the main washroom that Alvida used at their island base. Since he was done with his duties for the day he decided to walk two kilometers down the shore over to where he had been building his 'escape boat' with whatever driftwood and supplies he could manage to scrounge up for the past two years. He doubted he'd ever actually use it since it looked more like a coffin rather than a watertight seaworthy vessel. Some pirates drank, fought or gambled in their free time but Koby messed around in his boat and imagined his never-to-come escape.

He had only been fiddling with his boat for about an hour or so when he noticed an unusual sight. The constant flocks of gulls and other seabirds like sandpipers were very common to anyone living near the sea as were the much more useful News Coos who delivered papers to everyone and anyone. The unusual sight was further above, wheeling on the thermals was a bird of a shape he couldn't recognize right away. It looked to be some type of black and white bird of prey like an eagle, or perhaps some sort of pelican based on the shape of its beak, Koby decided. He squinted upward, his hand above his brow, but still he couldn't make out enough for an identification from so far above.

Then it transitioned smoothly from gliding up on the sea thermals into a sudden dive. That was interesting, the bird almost looked like it was heading right towards him.

It was diving right towards him.

"Yiiiieee!" Koby ducked his head into his arms and tensed, expecting to be snatched as a tasty shrew would be taken by a hawk and stayed that way for at least a minute.

"Do you think that person's alive, did he faint or is he playing dead Ann?"

The question had been asked with the soft voice of a lady who wasn't captain Alvida. Koby uncurled from his protective position and peeked up to immediately spot a black and white giant bird that had a person sitting on its back. She had short hair that was blue like the sea on a sunny day and gentle looking velvety black eyes that peered down at him. The girl dismounted smoothly from the bird in order to get a closer look at Koby.

He lastly noticed a green bird perched up on her shoulder only when it spoke in the same voice that he had heard before. "Well it seems he was just playing dead. Go ask him if there are any goats here."

"You could just ask him yourself," the blue haired girl, apparently named Ann, argued back to the green bird before turning her attention back over to him and saying, "Well? You heard her right? Are there any goats here?"

"N-no, I haven't seen any goats - just fish. Woah, wait a minute! Why are you asking me about goats!? You should get out of here quickly," Koby warned, "This island is the home base of the pirate "Iron Mace" Alvida and she'll completely flatten you if she finds you here."

"I'm just scouting ahead for my captain since he wanted to visit here. He thought there might be goats. He won't care that a pirate has a base here, right Dawn?"

"You've got that right. The only thing that scares Luffy is his grandpa. A pirate base wouldn't worry him a bit," the talking bird, apparently named Dawn, concurred with Ann's statement before saying something bizarre, "We'll be there in a little while, I can see the shore already."

Ann turned to look to the horizon and brightened up in excitement before waving her arm enthusiastically to apparently signal to her captain. Koby was eager to see what the approaching ship would look like and though he was worried over getting this girl and her captain tied up in his own issues hoped he might be able to finally escape from Alvida's service and was a bit disappointed that it was only a boat, only large enough to carry four people, even though it was a cool looking boat.

It had a design Koby had never seen before and was painted a rich forest green. It was a bit odd that a small boat would have a carved figurehead even if it was shaped like the head of a dragon. He briefly wondered what kind of captain lead Ann and manned such an interesting boat before he finally spotted the figure at the helm. It was a teen who looked to be approximately sixteen or so in age. He wore a sleeveless red vest, blue denim trousers cuffed at the knees, and a pair of straw sandals that matched the yellow straw hat perched on top of his head. Even from a distance Koby could make out a crescent moon shaped scar underneath his left eye but his smile was much more distinctive. He seemed to be friendly looking so Koby marginally relaxed even if it seemed to feel a bit underwhelming to meet him like this.

The teen gave a fond pat on the top part of the dragon figurehead (Koby decided he only imagined the figurehead lean into the teen's touch and smile a little wider) and in a loud, confidant voice that carried all the way over to Koby said, "You did a great job again, Dawn! Stay safe while I go ashore!"

Koby wondered why the little bird and the boat had the same name but decided it didn't matter too much to worry about it. Even with the boat so close to shore Koby still gaped at the sight of Luffy disembarking from the boat by taking a standing leap off of it and landing only three feet away from where Ann and her giant bird stood.

"This is my captain, Monkey D Luffy," Ann introduced as she gestured towards the scruffy but friendly looking teenager, who smiled widely at Koby and waved his hand towards the timid teen in an enthusiastically friendly gesture.

"The "D" stands for Delightful," Ann's little green bird spoke up in a merry tone of voice.

"No it doesn't." Ann denied as the green swallow fluttered over to Luffy and perched up on his yellow straw hat and settled contentedly onto the top of it.

"Where's the meat?" Luffy asked with excitement as he whipped his head back and forth to look across the tree line as though he expected a line of goats to emerge at any moment.

Ann shook her head and said, "Sorry but there aren't any goats here. Just a fishing town on one end of the island, a forest in the middle and some pirates on this side of the island."

"Pirates!?" Luffy's eyes seemed to sparkle with excitement, "Do you think these ones will be friends and share their food with us?"

"I doubt it. The pink haired kid said that Alvida would 'completely flatten' me if she found me here apparently," Ann responded not looking especially concerned, "I figured it wouldn't be anything to worry about since you were coming along anyway. I think last I heard Alvida's bounty is 5,000,000 beri only because she sticks around the Goa Region. It's considered pretty brave for a pirate since it's the region where the Marine Hero Garp is from. Pirates like us should leave the region quickly or else we'll be nothing but paste after a very short career."

While Luffy shivered and felt what was surely the shadow of death passing briefly over his soul Koby realized that the two older teens were actually rookie pirates and internally sulked over the realization. It was just his luck that the first pretty girl around his age that he'd met after years of servitude had to have been a pirate on top of being completely out of his league.

"I'm Koby. I'm actually a cabin boy on Alvida's ship," he introduced himself and admitted his shame while averting his eyes in order not to see their reaction to his confession but the result of his reveal was very anticlimactic.

"Oh, I see. Actually that's not important," Luffy said before he continued, "the important thing is for you to answer this. Do you know where I can get some food? I ate on the mayfly's ship but my leftovers vanished when he sunk his ship."

"Y-you were on a sinking ship?" Koby looked up in astonishment at Luffy, astonished over his admittance. It was certainly a farfetched statement considering the excellent state of his boat, "A normal person will die on a sinking ship."

"I almost did but Ann saved me," Luffy admitted in a tone that seemed a bit too cheerful to be speaking of a near death experience, "So food? Where can we get some?"

"Not at Alvida's base, she'll catch us for sure. I think there might be some small animals in the Middle Forest that you could hunt and I think there's a pub over in the little town across the island (though I've never been there). The other pirates told me the forest is filled with restless soul sucking ghosts though so maybe we should try to fish on the shore here instead of going somewhere."

"Let's get food at the pub then! Pub food is pretty tasty. I had it a lot growing up. Let's go across this forest!" Luffy ordered, ignoring Koby's suggestion as he pointed at the forest and then whipped his hand to point at Ann who had already started to climb up on top of Balloon, "This is crew bonding time so no flying unless Balloon can carry you, me and Cody."

Balloon squawked at Luffy, puffed his chest out and flexed his wings as though he wanted to show how strong he was but crooned in disappointment when Ann hopped off from his back.

Ann nodded and in an agreeable tone of voice said, "Yes, that sounds fine. This island isn't very big anyway. I could see the whole area from not too far up in the air. It'll be dark soon though, should we really go into an unknown forest this late?"

Luffy threw his a fist into the air energetically and gleefully said, "It'll be fine! Let's go to food and adventure! Show us the way Cody."

As Koby turned to lead the two pirates and birds to where they wanted to go (He sure was used to taking orders from pirates, wasn't he? His miserable inner wanna-be marine scolded ineffectively) he struck up a conversation to distract himself, "I actually don't want to be on this island anymore ya' know. I was thinking about running away but I just don't have the guts to do it...I'm gonna end up being a cabin boy for Alvida for the rest of my life even though I want to do something else."

"If you want to leave, then leave," Luffy said easily as he took the lead of the group since he felt they were moving too slowly.

"No! No way! I can't, it'll never work! Whenever I think about Alvida finding out I want to leave my legs turn all mushy...I get too scared!" Koby denied frantically remembering that dark day so many years ago, "It was all too fast, I remember it like it was yesterday! I only wanted to go out fishing but I accidentally got onto Alvida's ship! I had to be a cabin boy for Alvida for these last two years just to stay alive!"

"Wow Cody, you're pretty stupid and useless and you seem kinda wimpy too. I don't like you," Luffy said honestly causing Koby's shoulders to wilt a bit.

"Gee, thanks for your honesty," Koby mumbled morosely.

"Aw, you don't need to be so mean to Cody, Luffy. Not everyone in this world is meant to be smart, useful or brave but even those types of people deserve freedom just as much as anyone else." Ann felt some empathy for the younger teen but not much since she at least had at least tried to escape her pirate captor with Balloon within a few hours of being captured.

"Actually my name is _Koby_ ," it didn't seem to Koby that either of them heard him since Ann seemed more interested in debating with her captain over listening to his comment even as the trio of humans and duo of birds soon came up to the densely packed inner forest where none of Alvida's crew ventured very far into.

The trees were too thick and too old with roots that twisted entwined together. The canopy of the forest was so dense that Koby couldn't even see the light from the setting sun. On the shore it had been late evening but within the forest it was already dark and getting darker. Luffy traversed through it as easily as though it were an open meadow. Ann seemed to be following Luffy's lead and even though she stumbled a few times the big panda bird Balloon was always near enough to steady her so she wouldn't fall. Koby felt like he tripped over every single root they crossed and his hands were already getting tender from breaking his falls on the rough bark of each tree.

"So why did you two set sail anyway? You're both pirates right?" Koby asked as he moved to walk closer to the duo, trying to distract himself again. Wasn't he supposed to be leading them anyway? Not that it mattered much since he hadn't ever been this far into the forest.

"There's freedom on the ocean, you know," Ann answered easily with a smile, "Even though I just became a pirate I've never felt this lighthearted before. It's honestly very addictive."

Koby nodded at her explanation and when he turned to Luffy he watched transfixed at the blinding wide smile that Luffy produced as he loudly declared, "I came out and will gather a crew, have adventures, collect awesome treasures and become the Pirate King!"

Koby really did trip on one of the tangled roots in shock and looked up at Luffy in baffled incomprehension, "Eh? Wha-? What!? Pirate King is the title of the one person who has everything in the world. Are you telling me that you're looking for the world's greatest treasure, the One Piece!?"

"I sure am," Luffy said with a confident grin as he continued to march fearlessly forward.

"Do you want to die or something!?" Koby shouted in disbelief over what he was hearing, "All the pirates in the world are looking for that treasure!"

"Well so am I," Luffy said with a firm expression, "and they won't beat me."

"I-impossible! Impossible! Utterly, utterly impossible!" Koby refuted as he descended further into frenetic denials over Luffy's declaration, "To become Pirate King in these times, the Great Pirate Era! There's no chance! It's utterly impossible! You'll die trying!"

Whap! "Ow, w-why'd you hit me?" Koby whined as he rubbed the lump on his head that was beginning to form from of Luffy's punch to his head.

"Because I can't stand whining like that," Luffy replied unconcerned over Koby's whimpers.

"...oh well… I guess I'm used to it anyway…" Koby admitted even as the lump seemed to be disappearing. Pirates certainly were a violent bunch weren't they?

"I'm not afraid of dying," Luffy said firmly causing Koby to halt his negative self reflections.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Because it's my dream. My dream and treasure are tied together," Luffy continued sharing a smile with Ann and the two birds, "and that's why I don't mind dying for it."

"...you wouldn't even mind death?" Koby asked feeling amazed over Luffy's bold declaration.

"Besides I know I can do it. Even though it might get kind of tough," Luffy admitted.

Koby felt a bit hesitant but he had to ask the question welling up in his mind, "...Will I also...be able to accomplish my dream….? If...I'm willing to die that is...?"

"Hm? What?" Luffy asked since Koby's voice had been barely above a whisper.

"Will I be able… to become a marine?"

"A marine?"

"Luffy. Ann. I know it means that we'll be enemies! But joining the marines and catching bad guys has always been my dream! Do you think I can do it?"

"I wouldn't know."

"I have to at least try! I'd rather die trying to get out of here and join the marines that stay here and be Alvida's cabin boy for the rest of my life! Then I'll be able to arrest awful pirates - like Alvida!"

"Ufufufufu" The sound of somewhat menacing laughter suddenly filled the air from behind him after Koby's declaration to which he flinched and yelped in fright. Instead of the whale of a pirate appearing however the laughter stopped only for identical laughter to start up from the front the ufufufufuing echoing back as an answer. Eerie glowing golden eyes seemed to be peering at them from every angle through the trees staring unblinkingly at them causing Koby to shiver in fear. There had to be over fifteen pairs of eyes shining in the dark. He stopped himself from fleeing though when he spotted Luffy's disappointed pout while Ann seemed to be trembling from excitement rather than fear based on the big smile that had stretched across her face.

"Aww, these aren't ghosts. They're just birds." Luffy complained as he pouted even further.

"These are laughing owls," Ann added with a grin, "I've never seen a flock so large. They must live across all the islands in the Goa region if they live here, on Goaf Island and on Dawn Island too. They're nocturnal birds that usually live in pairs in heavily forested areas and they like to eat bats. There sure are a lot of them here for such a small island though. I wonder how there can be so many bats here to cause a flock this big to gather."

Koby tried to ignore the birds and accidentally shuffled his feet into a large pile of fallen leaves that suddenly swarmed to life. He then had the rather obvious realization that it was currently spring (not autumn) and what he had stepped in wasn't a satisfying crunchy pile of leaves but instead a swarm of an impressive multitude of flying moths of some kind.

The frantically flying insects attracted the attention of a colony of bats which began to swoop around to catch the moths which in turn caught the attention of the parliament of owls so there were frantically beating pairs of wings everywhere except from the two pirate birds. Koby desperately ducked away from the flying mess that he caused mostly because Luffy and Ann were already walking away. He felt fortunate now that he was in the back of the group so he wouldn't be the first to encounter another situation like that again.

Luffy however seemed to be blessed by Lady Luck since he seemed to constantly miss walking into large colonies of spiders that had spun thick webs that ended up in Koby's hair, several impressive pitfalls that he almost stepped in that resulted in him needing a rescue from Ann, a loud colony of frogs scared the soul out of him by screaming at him when he passed by them and lastly and most disgusting of all, Luffy avoided disturbing a rotted out tree that burst open when Koby walked by it which ended up showering him with over a thousand tiny flying hissing cockroaches.

In much less time than Koby thought it was going to take the thick forest finally began to thin out again giving the group enough space to move more easily.

If Koby never had to see another roach for the rest of his life it would be too soon. It was no wonder Captain Alvida had a near obsession with cleanliness with insects like those in the forest.

The fishing town they found on the other side of the forest was rather strange. Only a few buildings were built on the land but there were several small buildings built on the docks instead where it seemed that most of the villages seemed to live on boats. Of the buildings on land probably the largest one was a pub with the effigy of some kind of mermaid goat with pink horns, fishtail and beard, black hair and eerie yellow and black goat eyes standing proudly on the top of the building with a green lit lantern in its mouth. Koby realized the mermaid goat was staring back at him.

The mermaid goat was alive.

Koby averted his gaze and resolutely decided that there were no mermaid goats on goat island. Just impressively lifelike effigies of mermaid goats crafted by an obviously skilled artisan.

Ann whispered to Balloon, "Wait for us here at the edge of the forest but be sure to call out if anything dangerous approaches."

Balloon crooned unhappily but calmed down with a pat to the back of his head and settled in as the lookout for the group.

Luffy had picked up his pace significantly when the pub was sighted and Ann seemed to be matching his stride now that Balloon was left safely as a lookout. By the time Koby caught up to the door of the pub Luffy was already seated at the bar counter with Ann seated next to him (Dawn the bird was still perched on top of his hat) right in front of a burly bartender who was likely his own bouncer seeing that he looked like he ate pirates for breakfast every morning and gargled iron and glass shavings every night before going to bed.

"Food!" Luffy cheered as he hit his fists enthusiastically on the bar counter which had a few locals look up in surprise, though the barkeeper seemed to be unphased by Luffy's bombastic entrance.

"So some of you pirate lot from across the island finally got the stones to finally cross the forest, eh?" the old barkeeper asked with a voice that was as old and leathered as his face.

Koby sputtered as he sat on Luffy's other side at the accurate accusation though Ann and Luffy didn't seem to care.

Luffy actually shrugged and said, "I'm actually a pirate from another island. The forest was alright, though it wasn't as fun as the one from home. The ghosts were just owls and there weren't even any regular tigers or bears, let alone giant ones."

"You a Dawn Islander then, eh? That's the only place with tigers in this area. You do seem a bit too scruffy to supposedly be from the cleanest and most beautiful land in the East Blue though," the old barkeeper commented suspiciously as the locals made their way to leave the pub. This caused Koby to break out into a cold sweat. He hoped the old villagers wouldn't try to form an angry mob over this visit or Captain Alvida really would kill him.

"He's from Fuusha Village and grew up on Mt Colubo - not the city," Dawn piped from where she perched up on Luffy's hat, "besides that we've got money and came here for food anyway. So are you really going to try to shoo us away?"

"We have money?" Luffy seemed mystified by the concept.

"Yes. Remember the pirate fund? You got a full third of it remember? I used a lure earlier to stuff a couple 1000 beri notes under the ribbon of the hat for your allowance earlier today. The rest is with me," the bird rather calmly replied.

Luffy seemed mystified as he ran a finger along the inside of the ribbon of his straw hat and smiled with excited glee when he produced the somewhat wrinkled money from inside, "Shishishi! Food for me and my crew, old guy! Let Koby have some too, I guess."

The old barkeep eyed the money before he shrugged (money was money after all) and dished out three bowls of thick white stew, three large loaves of bread and three tall drinks that were blueish-green and a little murky, "The Special: whelk stew, buckwheat loaf and a seaweed special. That'll be 1500 beri for the three meals."

Luffy slapped his entire allowance on the bar and began his meal by picking up his bowl, tilting it back and swallowing it down in a single gulp, followed secondly by stuffing the loaf into his mouth in one bite and finished by chugging down his drink in a split second, presumably to wash down the bread. The entire sequence took approximately three seconds at most to complete. "Thanks uncle! That tasted great! Makino's had beef stew and sake the other day but this was pretty good too."

Ann had been sipping her green drink and was staring in shock at Luffy's annihilation of his food while Koby was still trying not to choke on a bite of his bread over his disbelief over Luffy's actions. The barman actually let out a single gruff bark of laughter at Luffy's comment and said, "Well I'll be. Haven't seen anyone pack away food that fast since Skipper's boy left the island to go and join the marines. Tell me why you're a pirate instead of a respectable marine and I'll give you a second serving at no charge."

"That's easy. I can't be a marine because my dream is to be King of the Pirates. I can't find the One Piece being a marine." Luffy said before adding shamelessly, "being a pirate is more fun and they have better songs to sing so that's sauce on the steak."

"Don't you mean 'icing on the cake'?" Koby asked.

"No, I like steak better," Luffy said, not caring a bit over whether he was using a metaphor correctly or not.

The barman was still smiling and kept his word by dishing out another bowl of stew, loaf and drink which Luffy consumed in the same manner as his first round. Koby noticed he did stop long enough to feed Dawn on his hat a chunk of the new loaf of bread almost as an afterthought.

Koby eyed his murky green drink and took a cautious sip and found that it tasted a lot better than it looked. Fruity, with the flavors of lime and melon mixed with probably rum and was a little on the sweet side. It certainly tasted better than the grog that Alvida's crew made for their raiding voyages. The barman continued to have a friendly if one sided chat with Luffy talking about stories of marines, pirates and bounty hunters whose reputations had come even out to their tiny island.

"You've got the guts to make a splash young pirate, I can feel it deep in my bones. When you get to the Grand Line don't you let people get away with saying the East is the weakest sea and don't you forget that Roger himself was from this sea. His marine rival the Hero is as well. There are legends in the making from this sea. Not like that fool Krieg who just left these parts but young folks like that famous marine from your island who went from the rank of lieutenant all the way to rear admiral recently for his actions and work out in the worst parts of the Grand Line. Of course there's the Greatest Swordsman of the East Blue, "Pirate Hunter" Roronoa Zoro who was last seen in Shells Town on Yotsuba Island and here locally there's Captain Morgan of the marines who's famous for taking down the smartest pirate in the East Blue, Captain Kuro of the Black Cat Pirates. "

"W-wasn't it mentioned in the news that the marines imprisoned had Roronoa for some reason in Shells Town?" Koby asked to himself, remembering the news that had been delivered by coo from a little over a week ago.

Koby imagined walking into the Shell Town marine base with Alvida in chains so Captain Morgan would give him praise and demand he join the marines to be his protege as soon as possible. Luffy would already be on the horizon daring him to come after him as his marine rival as soon as he could and allowed himself a very brief side story imagining of Ann falling in love with him and starting a forbidden marine-pirate romance. Luffy's voice brought him back to reality though.

"The Greatest Swordsman of the East Blue, huh?" Luffy asked with an oddly satisfied gleam of excitement in his eyes, "You said he's in Shelly Town? How far away it that?"

"It's about a three days journey to the southwest of this island. You sure you're interested in going? The marines there have become terrifying out there over the last few years or so according to the rumors." The barman warned though Koby had the (accurate) feeling that a warning like that to someone like Luffy was more like an encouragement or a challenge.

"I haven't decided yet," Luffy said and nudged Ann with his arm while stealing away her bread and stuffing it into his mouth in a single motion.

"Hey - I was saving that for Balloon!" Ann scolded as she tugged on one of Luffy's bulged out cheeks in irritation.

"Sowwy-" Luffy said with his mouth full but didn't sound a smidge remorseful about his actions.

Ann looked at the barman with her captain's cheek still pinched in her hand and she politely asked, "Will you give me more bread, please?"

The bartender did so and laughed as she stowed it away under her shirt to keep it out of her captain's reach and said, "I'm sure you brats will be legendary pirates one day. I look forward to seeing your bounty posters in the news one day."

"I don't want to be a pirate, I want to be a marine," Koby boldly declared (feeling finally fed up at being considered to be a pirate), "I won't let Alvida stop me. Luffy - this is a selfish request but when you leave this island will you take me to Shell Village, please. I want to join the marines there."

"Do what you want - I decided we're going to go to Shelly Village anyway," Luffy replied without a care.

The sound of voices speaking outside the pub who were speaking in somewhat enthusiastic voices shouting things like -

"The pirates should leave!"

and

"The pirates should hang!"

and even

"They're drinking our booze! String 'em up! String 'em up!"

They devolved into chanting as a mob which finally alerted the barkeeper to the ruckus outside.

"Uh oh, seems my regulars decided to form a lynch mob. You pirate brats can leave through the back while I settle them down - you don't want to begin your journey with a short drop sudden stop I think. Go on and get outta here pirate brats. Have fun becoming the pirate king," the barkeeper shooed the three away towards a door behind the bar.

Luffy was laughing delightedly over being run out of town by a murderous mob as he swept away with Ann and Koby at his heels though Koby found enough willpower in him to half turn and shout back at the barkeeper, "I'm going to be a marine - not a pirate. If Luffy's going to be the next King of the Pirates I'll be the next Hero of the Marines."

The next generation of sailing folks were definitely something interesting. The barkeeper laughed as the door closed behind the trio and he went out the front to temper down his neighbors. If they didn't settle right away he'd douse the light and close for the evening. It was almost closing time anyway.

When Luffy, Ann and Koby made it back to the forest Balloon was gwarking in irritation over being pestered by a flock of about eight birds that were each individually about a foot or more taller than he was.

"Balloon! I have food for you," Ann called as she pulled the loaf out from her shirt attracting the attention of not only Balloon but the other birds as well.

"What the heck are those things!?" Koby screamed as the veritable flock of large black and green striped ostriches with pink primaries and pink tail feathers left Balloon's side from among the trees and came straight over to the group seemingly out of curiosity and friendliness.

"Don't you know? Didn't you say you've lived on this island for two years?" Ann asked skeptically as one of the large birds pressed its head into her hand to receive a head scratch while Luffy danced around to each of the birds filled to the brim with excitement trying to pet all of them.

"I've never seen this kind of bird in my entire life," Koby denied and shrunk away when one of the larger ones turned and hissed threateningly at Koby like an angry goose. Koby hoped it would turn its attention far away from him.

Balloon watched enviously as the multicolored birds were scratched by Ann and produced an irritated squawk which startled the other bird away from Ann and took its place to receive head scratches and eat his bread instead. The other bird looked hopefully over to Koby who shrunk away from its attention. It honked angrily at him before walking over to Luffy who was enthusiastically petting the remaining birds like they were a pack of dogs instead of a flock of birds. They seemed to be enjoying his attention.

"What cool looking mystery ostriches. Do you think they would taste good? I'm still a little hungry even after the pub stew," Luffy said looking contemplatively at a particularly fat looking one who was eyeing the top of his head in an equally hungry gaze.

"As I live and breathe," the barkeeper from the pub appeared (which nearly caused Koby to jump out of his skin) from his relatively easy job of dispersing the mob (a round of free drinks promised for the next day funded by the pirates they were about to form a mob over apparently was enough to calm small town rage) and looked on in amazement over the colorful collection of birds, "These are Goat Forest Ostriches. I haven't seen one of these since I was a lad back when these woods were full of em. The royal family of Goa Kingdom liked the taste of them years ago and everyone thought they were hunted down to the last. They're plant eaters and used to keep the woods from getting overcrowded like it has become these last few decades."

"They're what-!?"

Koby watched in muted horror as the swallow on top of Luffy's hat had her voice cut off when the fattest ostrich finally got impatient enough to try to snatch the hat off Luffy's head. Only her bold sacrifice to intercept it's lunge with her body allowed her to save the hat by letting it gulp her down in a single motion instead.

"Hey, you were trying to eat my hat! Bad bird," Luffy scolded the ostrich and instantly stopped petting the flock to swat the one who ate dawn across its beak. It honked sadly over its chastisement. "I don't like these birds anymore. Dawn had to use a lure to save my hat. Let's go."

Luffy marched away from the flock, ignoring the second farewell from the barkeeper with Ann, Balloon and Koby following in his wake.

"I'm sorry about that ostrich eating your bird. I know she was special to you," Koby said sympathetically to Luffy who was clutching his hat close to his head and watching the flock of ostriches that were following behind them suspiciously.

"Why're you sorry? You didn't try to eat my hat," Luffy said, not sounding upset at all over the loss of his talking bird. Luffy seemed to be taking a bizarre form of revenge on the flock of ostriches (who seemed determined to follow them for some reason) by leading the group into even more than triple the amount of webs, bugs, shrieking frogs and pitfalls that they had passed on the way to the town. Koby was only glad that it wasn't him running into such unpleasant things anymore.

As they walked Luffy kept going faster, trying to ditch the overly familiar ostriches. Ann had hopped on top of Balloon to use him as transportation and seemed to be fighting a losing battle with sleep though she seemed determined to keep up with Luffy's pace so Koby refrained from suggesting that they rest up. Balloon sometimes took the lead if Luffy looked to be going in a random direction and sometimes it was Luffy who kept chatting about Dawn as though she was gone just for a moment instead of eaten inside the stomach of a larger bird.

"Let's go already - Dawn is waiting." Luffy said as he took the lead again only to scowl when he noticed the flock of ostriches still following behind him, one covered in web, one with moths fluttering about it, one with mud covered feathers from the pitfalls and the rest as pristine as when they had first started, including the fat one that had gone after his hat.

Balloon, apparently completely fed up over the overly familiar flock of ostriches, raised his wings to stretch out and over his head and flared out his primary feathers so sharply that Koby swore they looked more like sharp knives instead of feathers and let out a sound that was less like that of a hissing goose and more akin to the scream of an eagle. The ostriches instantly stopped their stalking of Luffy and instantly fled back in the direction of the fishing village. Balloon, having demonstrated his fowl dominance, seemed satisfied with the result.

"Good job, Balloon," Ann praised giving him a scratch beside his head even as she began to yawn again, "We need to get some sleep soon, we've been awake for almost two days haven't we?"

"You can sleep on Dawn when we get there. Come on, we're nearly there," Luffy insisted.

"Well, maybe we should get rested up and then we can leave in the morning," Koby suggested spotting that Ann and Balloon were yawning for longer stretches with shorter breaks between them.

"Let's leave this island then - it's morning!" Luffy cheerfully ordered as he ran for the edge of the forest.

"It's the middle of the night Luffy not - how is it morning already!?" Koby screamed as he got to the edge of the forest and saw that the morning light had already passed merely approaching and the sun was already rising out of the blue causing Luffy's boat to cast a dramatic shadow across the shore. Being in the dark forest had skewed his perception of time way too much.

"It was three hours on foot each way to cross the island and return," Ann reported as she yawned widely in unison with Balloon before she patted the exhausted Balloon on his head sympathetically as she she dismounted from his back. Koby gaped at Luffy, Ann and Balloon walking towards the boat whose figurehead seemed to be smiling encouragingly. This was finally his chance to leave Goat Island and he spoke with conviction stopping the tiny crew.

"I am going to be a marine. I know one day this will mean we'll be enemies but you really helped me decide - in a good way. I crossed a forest even Alvida never had the guts to go into, was gone all night and nothing really bad happened. I will go with you to Shell Town," Koby said with the confidence that he had previously lacked causing Luffy and Ann to finally turn their gazes towards him with a pair of grins, "I want to be a marine, not be stuck with Alvida for the rest of my life. If I leave now with the two of you I can get away from her for good and one day I'll be able to catch her myself. The only thing keeping me here was my fear and I'm not afraid to leave any more. (Though considering the amount of spiders in the forest here I might now be more afraid to stay.)"

"It's great that you've finally got the confidence to leave your fears behind," Dawn complemented from the figurehead in a tone of what sounded like admiration in her voice which caused Koby to gape at it in disbelief. Dawn really was the boat and not a bird? What was the bird then? What kind of pirate was Luffy to have a boat like that? His shock fizzled though when he heard the sound of many footsteps arriving from the woods and it wasn't angry villagers.

The sound of a slow mocking clapping brought Koby's attention to a sight he had not wanted to ever see again. Alvida was flanked by most of her crew as she mockingly applauded Koby's declaration. Koby shrank back instinctively and flinched when Alvida began to cruelly laugh.

"I heard what you said you little brat. Do you really think you can escape from me and catch me one day? What a joke." The cruel smile on Alvida's face turned a touch more menacing as she got a good look at Luffy and Ann. "Are these two helping you escape? Are they bounty hunters taking you under their wing then? No one can beat me. Before I crush them and give you the beating you deserve if you tell me what's the most beautiful thing in the sea I might decide not kill you."

"Well of course it has to be," Koby started to speak before he stopped and remembered Luffy's confidence and complete lack of fear about death, the goat forest journey to the town and back, Luffy's cool dragon boat and Luffy's way of erasing his own fears in less than a night over his decision to leave to go to Shell Town with them without looking back, "probably a mermaid somewhere."

Alvida and the crew who had come along with her all had their jaws hanging down to the floor over Koby's audacity.

Koby wasn't finished yet. Two years of servitude and one boost of self confidence was all it took for Koby to tell Alvida what was truly on his mind, "Not just that but angelfish, anemones, sea slugs and coral reefs are all beautiful things in the ocean. If you meant on the ocean there are beautiful ships and aquatic birds too. If you meant beautiful people then there are queens, princesses, marines and I'll even admit some pirates in this world who are beautiful… but you aren't one of them. Even if you were in the ocean or on the ocean you wouldn't be on any one of those beautiful lists either. You're the ugliest thing I've seen in my life and I've seen an _anglerfish_."

Throughout Koby's speech her assembled underlings had been slowly edging away as Alvida's face became more and more thoroughly enraged. "You...little...bastard! I am going to kill you slowly!"

Koby couldn't move. Even after his decision to be a marine his knees were still shaking and he couldn't move. Koby kept his eyes open and even though a nearly silent 'eep' escaped from his mouth he resolutely thought to himself, 'I don't regret this! I already told myself I'm going to fight for my dreams like Luffy!'

"Well said Koby! Now get behind me," Luffy appearing between Koby and Alvida wasn't quite what he had expected but while Koby appreciated the gesture Alvida crushing Luffy's head in with her giant club wasn't the desired outcome.

Except when Alvida lifted the club Luffy was completely unhurt. Luffy grinned, excited to showcase his cool powers again, and said, "That's useless against me because my body is rubber. Shishishi!"

"Th-that's impossible!" Alvida stuttered in denial, "My iron mace can crush anyone!"

"Rubber Pistol!" There was a mighty crash and Luffy performed a right cross so hard hitting that Alvida crashed into at least three of her subordinates before landing flat on the ground.

"His arm!...His arm extended! Captain was defeated by that monster!" The gathered crew cluttered together in terror, not knowing what to do in this situation.

"Aw, she was even weaker than the mayfly faced guy. At least he could handle one pistol punch without losing," Luffy complained when he saw that Alvida wasn't getting back up.

"Told you she couldn't be that impressive," Ann supplied her commentary, "Let's get going then shall we? Shell Island is three days from here and Koby can join the marines there."

"Alright but first, you." Luffy pointed at one of Alvida's crew who jumped at attention, "bring us a weeks worth of food so we don't have to stop to fish."

Within ten minutes the supplies had been brought over and Koby was sailing away with Luffy and Ann on the ship Dawn. Once they were out to sea Koby asked how it came to be that he was made of rubber.

"So you actually ate the Rubber Devil Fruit? That's surprising," Koby said as they sailed away from Goat Island and made their way towards Shell Island, "though since you're going after the One Piece that means you'll be heading toward the Grand Line soon, right?"

"That's right," Luffy agreed as he perched atop the dragon figurehead of his ship and smiled at the horizon they were traveling towards.

"You know that place is known as the Pirate's Graveyard, right Luffy?" Koby questioned feeling a bit worried over the friendly pirate's lack of lack of concern over his own life.

"Yeah, that's why I'm looking for an amazing crew. I already have Dawn, Ann and Balloon and the old guy from the bar mentioned someone who sounds interesting being held where we're going, right?" Luffy asked showing a growing spark of excitement in his expression.

"You don't mean... Roronoa Zoro do you?" Koby asked in disbelief.

"Yep. If he's a good guy I'll ask him to join the crew," Luffy said with an excited smile, "The old guy said he's a strong swordsman right? The greatest swordsman in the East Blue."

"You must be joking! H-he's a bounty hunter! On top of that I've heard he's a demon too so it'll never work!"

"Well I haven't met him yet. If he's a good guy I'll ask," Luffy seemed resolute in his decision. Ann huffed a little but smiled and leaned back to press into the already sleeping Balloon. They'd had quite the hectic last few days so it really was a good time to rest as Dawn made her way towards their next destination. She decided a nap was a great idea knowing if there was trouble Luffy and Dawn could handle it for now. As she drifted off her smile widened at Luffy's rather excited demands towards Dawn to 'tell an adventure story to me and Koby - one of the ones with funny marines since he wants to be a marine.' She drifted to sleep as Dawn began her tale. She was asleep almost as soon as the story began.

"Commodore Dodger was about to be passed over the third time for his promotion to Rear Admiral along with the new underwater ship to command that went with it. The reasons he had been given were (first) his unorthodox command methods, (second) an unfortunate "incident" with a nobel's personal ship and (thirdly) there happened to be a rumor of a certain genital tattoo that was acquired after he got blind drunk following said "incident"."

To be continued

* * *

 

Up next: An accidental theft is performed by Ann, a purposefully performed mess is orchestrated by Luffy, and a twist of fate has a certain hunter become the hunted.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case it isn't obvious I want to let you good readers know that I'm attempting to try for one chapter per location but don't want the chapters to be too short - or too long. Once I get further along I'll very likely need to split the locations into separate bits. After all in the manga Shell Village was only five chapters long but Cocoyasi Village/Arlong Arc was around thirty chapters.


	3. Chapter Three: Sword of Nice to Meet You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, settings, etc. of One Piece are the property of Oda Eiichiro. No copyright infringement is intended.

**_A sword never jams, never has to be reloaded, is always ready. Its worst shortcoming is that it takes great skill and patient, loving practice to gain that skill; it can't be taught to raw recruits in weeks, nor even months. - Robert A Heinlein_ **

"Triton looked over to his daughter and his heart softened. Keeping her from pursuing her dream was not what he had wanted to do. He had only wanted her to be safe. Now knowing that Ariel would be safe on Captain Eric's crew from witnessing him help destroy Ursula first hand was enough for him to agree to allow Ariel to leave and be on Eric's crew.

Ariel was thrilled. Even without being human she was fully accepted by the entire crew and joined up as the official musician of the crew. She spent the rest of her life free, having pirate adventures and exploring the surface world with her new captain who helped her see everything the surface world had to offer. The adventures they had on land however must be told at another time."

"Aw, no fair. You always stop at a good part Dawn," Luffy complained at the figurehead he was currently sprawled out on top of, "Stop being so mean!"

"Luffy? I don't think Dawn is trying to be mean. We're coming up to Shell Town right now to to dock at their port." Ann explained as she lowered the simple spyglass Dawn had given to her the day they set off from Goat Island. This was done in order for Ann to keep a lookout from the deck since she seemed to be antsy with nothing to do. Koby took the job of navigating the course to the island while Dawn took up the job of keeping the group a bit entertained. Luffy just did what he felt like doing.

"We're finally at Shelly Town! Great job, Koby!" Luff said as he spotted the island coming closer.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Koby asked, feeling a mix between excitement and apprehension over arriving at the marine town already, as he stashed his sea chart for the Goa region and adjacent Valerian region away in his only satchel.

"I mean we reached where we wanted to go and Ann didn't even need to fly ahead of us with Balloon to find the island." Luffy explained.

"I just used the most basic of navigational skills. The barkeeper on Goat Island even told us the direction to go towards. If you can't navigate or get a navigator to join you then you'll never make it to the Grand Line."

"I want to see the swordsman to decide if I want him to join my crew," Luffy declared offhandedly as the docks came into clear view.

Koby freaked out at his intent, having thought that Luffy's mention of his plan a few days ago had only been a brief whim that should've already been forgotten. "Remember what the barman said. He was arrested here on this island! The famous bounty hunter whose name is Roronoa Zoro! He's a bloody animal! He hunts down pirates and cuts them up into pieces! He's a man, known as "the demon", he could seriously hurt you and Ann and you really want someone like that to be on your crew?"

Luffy simply smiled and said, "I haven't decided yet. Depends on whether he is a good guy or not."

"He is a bad guy! That's why he was caught!"

While Koby was shouting at Luffy and trying fruitlessly to stop Luffy from doing what he wanted to do Ann was using the spyglass to look up over to the distant high walls of the marine base at the far side of the little town. Even from down here at the docks without the spyglass she probably would've been able to spot the tall carved stone statue of an imposing marine with a metal plated lower jaw, a raised arm with an ax as a prosthetic and a very menacing glare. It was kind of an eyesore.

"Balloon, you should either stay here with Dawn in the cargo hold or up beyond the lower clouds for now," Ann requested to her lounging friend only to get a squawk of protest from the loyal roc, "I just don't want any of these marines to get a chance to get a look at you."

Balloon gave Ann an angry gwark but seeing that Ann's request was serious cawed in frustration but gave her a quick nuzzle before ruffling his feathers at her, dropping a molted few from his wings and took off into the sky. There was no way he was getting stuck in the cargo hold when he had the option to fly. Not to mention this way he'd be able to come quickly if Ann needed him. Ann watched him go but he was hidden above the clouds within one blink and the next. Ann picked his molted feathers up from the deck and added them into her pocket next to her collapsed spyglass and leaned on Dawn's mast as they approached the docks.

"Luffy. Seagull or squirrel?" Dawn called out to Luffy, feeling indecisive over which lure shape to take as they got closer to dock her.

"Shark!" Luffy demanded to which Dawn ignored.

"Seagull it is then," Dawn said and noticing Luffy's disappointed pout caved into his request by saying, "I'll do a shark one at the same time then. (I need to practice water lures anyway.)"

Koby watched in fascination as out from the top of the mast grew a tangle of vegetation and flowers that budded into two separate forms the first took the shape of a seagull before it detached and flew over to stand on top of Luffy's straw hat. It looked like a green feathered gull with purple marks where the black feathers tended to be with bright yellow colored beak, legs and feet. The second form was a predominantly green shark with purple fins, large purple polka dots and a yellow underbelly that grew to about seven feet long before detaching from the mast and splashing down into the water next to the ship to Luffy's delight. He seemed a second away from sticking his hand in the water to pet the shark shaped lure on the head.

"So you don't only make bird shapes?" Koby asked, watching the colorful shark swimming among the other docked boats in curiosity, to which neither Luffy and Dawn replied to right away as Dawn went alongside the pier looking for a clear spot for Dawn to moor.

Ann instead replied, "When I first met Luffy Dawn was shaped like a lizard now that I think of it. She might just take the shape of any animal that she wants."

"Any animal I've eaten actually," Dawn supplied as her figurehead smiled showing off her now sharp looking dragon teeth surprising Ann and causing Koby to pale and step off the deck to the dock a bit faster than was necessary.

"You're carnivorous?" he yelped in dread once he was out of reach from her figurehead.

"I'm an omnivore," Dawn corrected, "Aside from plants and animals I can also eat glass, shell, ash, organic gems and metal but not plastic or rocks that are too hard for me to process. So I could eat pearls and coral but not diamonds or granite. Eating animals gives me the energy to speak, move and do other things. Plants and other things are used to repair myself and make things like rope and canvas or to make my lures. I need to practice using my water lures anyway since fish and seafood will probably be my main source of food out on the open sea."

"Well, let's see if we can find out more about Zoro and drop Koby off," Ann said as they left the docks and walked into town. There were a few people around though both Ann and Dawn realized quickly they seemed very skittish, miserable and sad. Once they got to town Luffy nodded his head and spoke as though he was a king making a proclamation (because of course he was).

"We'll go our separate ways here! Do your best to become a great marine, alright?" Luffy said with a wide smile as he pat Koby on the back encouragingly. (Better Koby than him to be stuck somewhere Grandpa Garp could find him instead of Luffy. Koby would be a worthy sacrifice to the cause. The fact that Garp still was insane enough to decide Luffy would change his mind to become a marine after over ten years of wanting to be a pirate was a mystery no one would ever be able to solve.)

"I will!... Thank you so much Luffy, you have to become a great pirate too (even though we'll be enemies in the future)," Koby said as he wept tears of gratitude.

"I wonder if Zoro is still being kept in the marine's base," Luffy wondered out loud and watched in fascination as the few people around them seemingly lost their collective minds, yelping and yelling while they flinched collectively further away from the group. Ann stepped to stand closer beside Luffy, seeing the extra attention they seemed to be getting now. At least people would probably stare at Luffy more than her.

Koby observed the light chaos that erupted around them and said, "Zoro's name must be taboo in this town. It's a good thing Captain Morgan's around to keep this town safe."

If the name Zoro caused an awkward reaction it was nothing compared to the absolute pandemonium that came from mentioning the name of Morgan. Women shrieked in terror - grown men wailed in horror - children wept in despair - and nearly everyone who had been in the streets ducked into their homes and businesses. The street within fifteen seconds was as empty as a ghost town.

Luffy began to laugh, the over the top reaction had been hilarious looking. Ann frowned in contemplation and started walking towards a shop while Koby and Luffy unconsciously followed her. Koby, however was concerned over the reaction and said, "That was weird. I could understand if they fear Zoro since he could escape from the marines at any time and go on a rampage through town but why would everyone be so afraid of a marine captain?"

"Well, he could've done something bad right?" Luffy suggested which incensed Koby.

"What? No way! Marines are the good guys," Koby denied adamantly.

"I think Luffy's right," Ann said in support of her captain, to which Koby gave her a wounded look over, but Ann pointed at something and added, "Take a look at this."

A wooden sign was hammered into the ground in front of the doorway of a dark and empty restaurant which read in eerily jagged lettering: 'Anyone who helps criminals will be executed as a criminal. By order of Captain Morgan.'

Koby worredly read the sign and asked, "What's going on here?"

The voice of a woman spoke up from beside them. A matronly woman bravely provided more information to the group of outsiders, "If you're looking for the owner of the place she and her daughter are locked up with the demon in the market square. They're due to be executed soon but I don't have the heart (or stomach) to watch."

The ragtag group made their way to the market square only to come up to a sizable crowd mostly near the edges of the market square, avoiding the temporarily built scaffolding in the middle where three figures were chained with new steel chains and shackles awaiting their apparent execution. Amazingly there were no guards or marines around, simply the townsfolk. Morgan's rule was absolute in this small town and he knew no one was bold or stupid enough to dare to defy his actions.

Luffy frowned in contemplation now that he finally could look at the person he had wanted to see. The male prisoner was a muscular young man of average height with lightly tanned skin. He had three identical gold earrings on his left earlobe, wore a black bandana around his head, black trousers tucked inside black boots, a plain white shirt with three undone buttons at the collar and a green haramaki around his waist. His only other remarkable feature seemed to be green hair that could be seen poking slightly out from under the black bandana.

"So that's Zoro, huh? Those chains look easy to escape from to me." Luffy said as he looked closely at the new thick steel chains holding Zoro's arms and legs securely to both himself and the scaffold. The wood of the scaffold where the chains were secured was splintering but not breaking and his shoulders and legs looked strained.

"You're made of rubber so you have an escape advantage regardless," Dawn said as she landed on Ann's shoulder. "Look - you can see he's pulling to break his arms out of his chains as hard as he can without causing a scene. He'll end up breaking or dislocating both his arms and legs soon if he doesn't stop soon though. If the scaffold was gone he could move freely."

"How awful," Ann said wincing as she watched the little girl sniffle and try to wipe her face but wasn't able to from the chains holding her shackles to the floor of the scaffold.

"Are they really that bad? I know public executions are meant to be for dangerous criminals. Why are that girl and lady up there too?" Koby asked a stoic faced man in the gathered crowd.

The man gritted his teeth and harshly snarled, "It's an injustice over why those three are up there, that's what it is! It was Helmeppo, that brat son of Captain Morgan, who started all this. Ririka runs a restaurant in town and her daughter Rika was going to be mauled by Helmeppo's pet wolf about three weeks ago. That bounty hunter, Zoro slayed the beast before it could get to her though. Helmeppo was a brat and threatened to turn Ririka and Rika into his father but agreed that if Zoro could last thirty days imprisoned without any food all three would be released without punishment."

"If that's true then why are they being executed together now," Ann asked with some distress as she pet Dawn's false feathers to try and calm herself down. Seeing the way Zoro was straining his arms made her own ache a little.

"Rika snuck over to the marine base yesterday in order to try to get some food over to that Zoro kid. The marines literally tossed her out of there and she ended up with a broken arm. We thought that would be the last of it but Helmeppo decided to break his word and have Zoro executed early. Morgan found out about Rika sneaking into the base and decided to execute all three of them together. He ordered that they all be executed today at noon by hanging. It really is an unfortunate shame, I wish I could do something."

"Stop wishing and do something then since no one's guarding them," Luffy said as he watched Zoro closely trying to come up with what he wanted to do. He could practically hear his bones groaning from here. The villagers here seemed to be a bit wimpy (maybe even more than Koby had been).

"No way. I'd be executed myself if Morgan found out I helped them," the man denied as he shook his head and crossed his arms. "I wouldn't break them out for any treasure in any of the Four Blues."

Luffy's eyes seemed to brighten and he suddenly declared, "Hey! I got an idea!"

"Wait. What-?" Ann asked as she looked over to Luffy but he had already bounced away from the crowd and was fearlessly making his way to the scaffold. She sighed but followed after him a moment later. Koby smacked his hand to his face in exasperation and Dawn wasn't surprised at all. Once Luffy got going it was all or nothing for him.

"Psst! Hey! You three," Luffy called up to the three shackled figures up on the scaffold trying to get their attention. The little girl with the bandages covering her face and cast around her arm looked over at him first with her mother looking over a moment later. Zoro with his arms still straining the shackles holding his arms behind his back and his feet shackled together however purposefully ignored him. Nobody could ignore Luffy for very long Zoro would soon discover as Luffy continued to talk.

"Me and my crew are pirates and want to find the best treasure on this island. We will break you out and help you escape and you can tell us where to find it." Luffy haggled shamelessly which caused Zoro to look at him and glare even harder (if that was possible).

Zoro considered Luffy's offer for only a split second before he said with a scary smile, "I'll do everything I can to stay alive and fulfill my dream but my only treasure on this island is at the marine base and I'd die before I would let you have it."

"That's fine," Luffy said and turned his gaze to the woman beside Zoro.

The grown woman seemed sad and said, "My only treasure is my daughter and our lives."

Luffy nodded in agreement and turned his gaze to the little girl. She shamelessly (and obviously) lied and said, "Why don't you check the back alley behind mom's restaurant and follow the clues there to a treasure."

"Okay. We'll take that one. Hold on I'm gonna break the scaffold."

Wait. What?

The guiltless three death row prisoners had only a moment to be confused before Luffy reached a hand back and hit the base of the scaffold hard, breaking it into many pieces. Ann caught the little girl, Koby caught her mother and Zoro landed on his feet. With the scaffold destroyed it caused the three prisoners to become loosed from where they had been shackled to the scaffolding though they still had the shackles with dangling chains attached to their arms. Ann thought the way Zoro wore his made them look like gauntlets instead of restraints and feeling the chaotic ferocity of his aura increasing now that he was free to move decided to stand a tiny bit further away from him as she set the little girl down to stand on her own feet.

Luffy looked out to the crowd of gawking onlookers and theatrically said, "Shishishi! Go ahead and tell the marines that a pirate kidnapped these prisoners and they can't have them back. Bye-bye! What are you waiting for, let's go!"

Luffy's insane brand of encouragement spurned the semi-freed prisoners to finally make a break for it. Luffy lead the way while Ann ran behind the group, keeping an eye out for any marines that might suddenly appear. (Koby shouted something about distracting the marines who would show up as he stayed behind, trying to calm the crowd of panicking onlookers on his own.)

Zoro hadn't felt this lost (emotionally that is) since Kuina had died years ago. He had to ask, "Who are you?"

"I'm Monkey D Luffy and I'm going to be King of the Pirates! Nice to meet you!" Luffy introduced himself with a wide toothy grin.

"The "D" stands for Dangerous," The green seagull flying above Luffy spoke up in a cheery tone of voice (startling two thirds of the fleeing prisoners) to which Luffy's other companion, the blue haired girl scowled up at and shook her head.

"No. This really isn't the time for that, Dawn."

"There's always time for that, Ann. Anyway where are we heading?" Dawn asked, ignoring Ann's frustrated expression to look over to Luffy instead.

"I need my treasure back," Zoro insisted, "It's probably somewhere in that marine base."

The thought of going anywhere close to the marine base was enough to make both Ririka and Rika's faces flinch in fear and stumble in their strides. Slowing down caused both Luffy's crew and Zoro to pay more attention to the mother and daughter.

"I think Rika and I might need a place to hide from the marines for a while," Ririka admitted as she nervously ghosted her hands across her shackled wrists and then her neck before paling a bit more, "Captain Morgan will just catch the two of us again in order to complete our execution if we don't."

Luffy's face morphed into a more contemplative expression for a split second before he began speaking, "Right! I'll go with Zoro to get his treasure and fight marines at the base. Ann you can help the Ri's either hide or escape and help us get ready to make us a quick escape after you find us a good treasure for a souvenir. Dawn go back to the market square and help Koby 'cause it's nearly noon now and he's all by himself. Let's go!" Luffy directed and Ann nodded before putting her thumb and finger into her mouth to let out an ear splitting whistle.

Two seconds later Balloon landed in the middle of the street in front of the group with an almost inaudible thud. Zoro, Ririka and Rika's jaws dropped at the sight of the gigantic bird wondering how something that big could appear so fast and so silently.

Ann fondly scratched behind Balloon's right black puffy feather tuft and gently spoke to him, "Hello Balloon. These are Zoro, Ririka and Rika. Would you help me keep Ririka and Rika up out of sight? I need to find them a place to hide for a little while and they'd be safest with you up in the sky."

"Are you sure this will be safe?" Ririka asked cautiously, "What if we fall?"

"Balloon won't let you fall, I promise," Ann insisted, "He's strong enough to carry you for hours without needing to land. It'll just be until we can stop the marines from coming after you. Here, I'll help you up."

Ann placed Rika up on Balloon first near his neck and helped Ririka up, having her sit behind her daughter. She pet Balloon on the head and said, "Keep these two as safe as possible up there. We'll be done soon, Balloon."

Balloon crooned at her but flapped his wings twice to get lift off and seconds later neither he or his passengers could be seen in the sky. Ann waved at Luffy and ran to find a way to get them a way off the island and left Dawn with Zoro and Luffy. Dawn was the last to leave but called her own farewell to Luffy before she left.

"Have fun stormin' da castle," Dawn called after Luffy and Zoro before flying away towards the market square which caused Luffy to burst into gut busting laughter even as he ran off with Zoro right at his heels.

"The bird does know we're going to a marine base, not a castle, right?"

"Yeah, Dawnie knows," Luffy said even as he enthusiastically punched his fist up in the air, "Woohoo! Time for our first pirate raid as a crew! This is so exciting!"

"Who said I was a member of your crew?" Zoro said with a scowling frown and furrowed brows causing Luffy to momentarily lose his smile.

"Oh, right...I forgot. Zoro, be a member of my crew!"

Zoro scoffed and snapped out, "Why should I? "Pirate" just means "bad guy" who would want to be a pirate?"

"What's wrong with that? You were about to be executed anyway even without being a pirate," Luffy argued with a pout.

Zoro snarled in fury over the truth of that statement and said, "I don't care what they think! I've never done a thing in my life that I'll ever regret. No matter what, I will survive! I have to in order to fulfill my dream!"

"What's that?" Luffy asked.

"To be the Greatest Swordsman in the entire world. My treasure is my sword."

"Good! To be the world's greatest swordsman. It'd be embarrassing if the Pirate King couldn't have at least that on his crew," Luffy cheered, "I already have the best ship, the best lookout and with you I'll have the best swordsman!"

Zoro didn't reply for a moment as he considered Luffy's words and actions up to this point before giving in to say, "Alright. If you get my sword back before I do then I'll give you a chance and join your crew. You did just save my life and my ambition with it after all. If I find it before you though we'll part ways after this and I will only promise not to never hunt you down."

"I'm going to win!" Luffy ran towards the base faster and Zoro sped up in order to match his pace. He didn't want to make things easy for Luffy after all.

Ann ran along the alleys behind the town shops trying to find an escape route that would also distract the marines from chasing after them once they made their escape. It looked like it would be trickier than she originally assumed it would be. It seemed that all the roads and alleys in town lead directly to the marines base (likely the town was designed that way in order to deploy marines to any location on the island quickly).

She found herself in the alley behind Ririka's sealed up restaurant and stopped for a moment to think. She crossed her arms and tried to think up a plan of action as she paced absently around in an infinity loop pattern. Escaping a town or island alone had always been as easy as hopping on Balloon and taking off again but as it was it seemed that getting rid of the root cause of the problems in this town would be the best plan.

How could she get the marines to focus on doing something other than harassing the townsfolk though? Especially when their leader was acting more like a corrupt monarch rather than a corrupt marine. The marine's issue here seemed to be that they were the biggest birds in the aviary and what she needed to solve the problem was either a bigger bird to knock him off his roost or the other birds in the aviary needed to transform from wimpy doves into fierce jays instead.

Ann looked around the alley to be sure she was alone and remembering Rika's lie pulled one of Balloon's black feathers out of her pocket and decided to try a spell. If it activated her request would be possible but if it failed she would find another way to make a way for her crew to escape. She struck the feather against the wall of the alley before crushing it in her hand. She lifted her hand to her face and spoke out loud, "Take me to a kingly treasure worthy and defenders fierce and a little wrathy."

She opened her hand and blew the black powder in her palm out and the resulting dust cloud formed into a tiny, fluttering hummingbird shape that darted in three jerky directions before taking off down the alley opposite from where she came from. Ann inwardly cheered as this meant this town did have some fierce defenders apparently and a treasure to boot. If Luffy asked her how she found treasure she would honestly tell him she followed the clues from behind the restaurant of course, the fact that the clues were of her own making probably wouldn't matter to him in the long run.

Captain Morgan and a platoon of marines had come to the market square and found the scaffold destroyed, the prisoners long gone and any witnesses completely vanished. Some marines felt relief and hoped the prisoners had been able to escape while others knew Morgan would be unreasonable. Again.

"Do as I order. Find Zoro, that girl and her mother and shoot them on sight when you find them. They are traitors to me and must be executed as such. Shoot anyone trying to aid their escape as well and if you fail this task I'll court martial you and have you sent to Impel Down as a traitor to the government and you'll wish I had executed you here instead!" Captain Morgan ordered.

"Yes sir," the gathered marines saluted and prepared to leave the central plaza only to see Koby standing shakily between the platoon and path to the docks where the prisoners were likely trying to escape to.

Koby's whole body was shaky but was able to say what he wanted in a relatively clear and loud voice, "According to the Marine's Code of Military Justice, Section 8 Article 30 as well as Section 9 Article 9. Only marines ranked Commodore and higher are allowed to sanction or permit the execution of a non-criminal World Government citizen. Lieutenants and Captains are only permitted to permit the execution of pirates and wanted criminals. Also under Section 8 Article 25 it states that if a superior officer oversteps their bounds their subordinates are permitted to ignore their orders until they are either pardoned by a superior officer or relieved from services."

"It really says that?" A petty officer asked with shock written all across his face.

"Y-yes. What Captain Morgan is doing is against the law," Koby stuttered out.

"I AM THE LAW HERE, TRAITOR!" Captain Morgan bellowed as he lifted his arm with the prosthetic ax in order to strike Koby down in a fit of rage. Koby leaped back but his time with Luffy had him prepared to stake his life on being a good (future) marine and didn't dare back down.

Morgan's attack was interrupted by an oddly green colored seagull with purple markings and yellow beak and feet swooping down from the sky in order to peck at his eye. Staying in the air in order to give Koby a chance to escape by distracting the marines in a very obviously sarcastic tone of voice it spoke up and said, "Was that supposed to sound tough or stupid? Because it sounded pretty stupid to me."

"Did that seagull just talk?" A marine asked in surprise.

"It did, why is a seagull talking?" Another concurred.

"Did it really just trash talk Captain Morgan?" The third was ashamed a seagull had more guts than he did.

"Idiots. That isn't an ordinary seagull," Captain Morgan said with a scoff and Dawn worried for a split second that he might recognise her species like Luffy's grandpa had years ago but he proved he didn't have a clue to what she was when he continued, "That seagull's obviously eaten one of the treasures of the sea - a devil's fruit. Now stop being distracted and find the prisoners to execute them or I'll have your heads!"

"Do you really have the time to perform pointless executions when you have pirates attacking your base?" Dawn asked Captain Morgan who glared up at the out-of-attack-range annoying talking seagull in the sky. Koby had ducked behind a building but hadn't strayed too far in order to listen to the confrontation between the marines and their symbol (a seagull that is).

"I'd be a fool to believe an obvious lie from a bird who ate a devil fruit. The only traitor here is this pink haired brat and you - his little pet. You won't be allowed to escape by distracting us with tales of imaginary pirate attacks."

Even from down in the market square the sound of a twenty meter tall statue falling from a great height and hitting the ground reached the ears of the marine platoon and they turned in unison to gape up at the dust cloud rising from their base.

Morgan, if it was possible, looked even more enraged as he shouted up at the seagull in the sky, "What was that!?"

"The sound of a fool being proved wrong," Dawn said with a seagull laugh before flying away, "You really have what M.A.R.I.N.E. stands for: Muscles are requested; intelligence not expected. Have fun fixing your base after that imaginary pirate attack (though it probably was an accident, knowing Luffy). Later jarheads!"

Morgan growled and shouted, "Don't just stand there! Half of you find that brat and the escaped prisoners and the other half return with me to the base. We've got pirates to exterminate there!"

"It looks pretty ugly up close, doesn't it?" Luffy said once he and Zoro were standing outside the walls of the marine base. Zoro was already climbing up over the wall, completely intent in getting his swords back as soon as possible. Remembering he was in the middle of racing for Zoro to join his crew Luffy pulled back his arm down a few blocks and aimed for the top.

Zoro's jaw dropped in surprise when he saw Luffy's arm stretched up over the wall in order to grab a cannon turret high up on the interior building and flung himself up - apparently aiming for an open window near the top of the base but he overshot and hit the stone statue above the base instead.

Zoro watched from where he stood on the outer wall of the base in mute disbelief while the entire twenty meter tall statue shook - then toppled - and fell from the top of the base down to the empty courtyard below. Luffy had been shouting unintelligibly the entire way down. Any possible concern from Zoro that Luffy, the insane (stretchy?) pirate captain could be injured was instantly dismissed when he spotted the figure stand among the statue rubble, casually dust himself off exactly twice and made a mad dash into the base via an open window on the second floor of the base.

The realization that Luffy was now in the lead spurred Zoro to leap from the wall nearly to the front of the base, swaying once as a wave of vertigo from hunger hit him, and proceeded to race to get to his swords first. His hunger could wait a little bit longer to be fixed.

Running into the first group of marines in the base Zoro suddenly remembered he was invading a marine base without his swords on hand (and in mouth). His hand swinging up to block the strike of a sword caused him to remember the chains still dangling from the cuffs around his wrists and he frowned for a moment before smiling when a thought entered his head. If he could use the chains on his wrists by imagining them as particularly flexible swords it might give him an edge he needed.

Moments later he was mowing down their ranks as easily as a fire moved through dry kindling. The fact that chains were just flexible swords was a fact burned into his stubborn brain and would stay there for a while.

"Coo-coo"

When she heard the sound of cooing and bird noises getting closer Ann almost smacked herself silly. How could she have forgotten using magic with Balloon's feathers without a clear image of what she wanted always ended up resulting in birds. She would accept what she had been given of course but she wondered how she would be able to convince Luffy that a pair of fancy pigeons or doves were meant to be treasures.

Rather than finding fancy doves or pigeons however Ann was surprised to find a rather large coop in bad repair with nearly a hundred chickens and one big rooster inside. All of them looked to be white feathered with black beaks and feet but they seemed to be guarding and flocking around a more interesting pair.

Ann moved into the coop in order to look closer at the bizarrely pretty pair of chickens roosting in the back. They each had a very soft, fluffy appearance like fur or down rather than true feathers which meant they likely were unable to fly. One had a pastel ombre pattern going from blue on her head down to indigo and purple through her body and tail, all in lovely vibrant hues while the other had pink on her head down to orange and yellow through her body and tail. Even for their small sizes they were both roosting on top of a next of dozens of white eggs apparently roosting for the other chickens in the coop. For a pair of roosting birds they had shockingly calm and friendly temperaments.

Ann grabbed the feather-dust hummingbird still hovering in front of her, turning it back into a pile of black dust. Sensing that the dust had a little more power in it then decided to wing it and asked, "May the roc of the sky grant a boon to this flock. Please answer my question to receive this boon: what makes you treasure and what makes you fierce protectors?"

After she sprinkled the remaining feather-dust over the flock of chickens (including the two colorful ones) the two fluffy chickens each nudged out a single egg from their pile and Ann carefully picked them up. The eggshells were very pretty with a mother-of-pearl sheen on it over base colors that were a swirly pastel yellow and pastel blue. The eggs were each only two inches long and three inches around or so but seemed surprisingly heavy for their size. One of the legion of white chickens pecked at her hand causing Ann to drop the egg she had been holding. The egg fell to the ground and cracked open but the resulting mess on the ground had Ann gaping and feeling a bit lightheaded.

Aside from the fact that the white of the egg was shimmery and white and the yolk was equally shimmery (only over a creamy yellow color) there was a thumb sized nugget of what seemed to be solid gold laying in the middle of the mess.

Apparently these fluffy birds were of the gold egg laying variety, which was almost stupidly rare and tended only to be found around very powerful nobles or were carefully kept secrets in completely remote lands practically impossible to get to (like the nearly mythical giant island, Elbaf). How she had ended up finding two just randomly roosting with an ordinary flock of chickens on a random island in the East Blue was almost insanely lucky even if she had been boosting her chance with a little bit of magic. Bird magic really was the best magic. Now she just had to find out what made the white chickens and rooster wrathful and find a way to use that.

While Koby was running from the marines he heard a lot of shouting and orders being thrown about but one order in particular to him stood out. "Let's go to the docks and secure any boats left there so they can't escape!" One of the marines called out to his fellow squad mates causing Koby who had been ducking in an adjacent alley to freak out a bit.

"Oh no! They'll capture Dawn and then Luffy and Ann won't be able to escape from town!"

"Wait. What?" Dawn through the seagull lure asked while Koby ran away from her towards the docks. Dawn used the lure to rise up higher in the sky and used it to look around. She used it to spot her body where she thought she had placed herself, further down the shore away from the docks for now. Koby must have forgotten she was a living ship and could easily unmoor herself and sail herself away to hide if she needed to. The human thought process was something she could only vaguely recall but being a multitasking plant did make things hard to explain to people so she had largely given up trying, looking through lures and controlling them was more like playing with a bunch of puppets that had speakers and cameras then actually being present in each body.

Speaking of lures her shark lure was feeling a bit more waterlogged and she needed to add another air pocket to help its buoyancy. She would need to pick a better plant material in the future to make sea creatures because that one was swelling up to a very unwieldy size.

When Koby got down to the dock there he saw marines everywhere and Dawn (the boat) was gone from where she had been moored.

"Oh this is bad! Dawn's been taken by the marines already!" Koby shouted as he reached up to pull on his hair out of stress and morosely despaired over the bad situation. He felt almost as bad as the blond teenage boy wearing a tacky purple suit (actually a special uniform meant for special recruits like nobles or royalty who wanted to be in the marines) sitting on the far end of one of the empty docks looked. He seemed to be crying miserably and pressing his hand into a blackened eye. He was holding an official marine transponder snail in his other hand.

Koby marched down the dock over to him and said, "Hey you! Civilians aren't allowed to have marine issued equipment like that transponder snail."

The other teen stopped crying for a moment in order to glare at Koby and say, "Don't be an idiot. I am a marine."

"You're a marine?" Koby exclaimed with his eyes bulged wide open and his jaw dropped in disbelief.

"Of course I am!" the teen snapped back and admitted while still sniveling, "I'm supposed to monitor the outgoing calls so no complaints from the lower worthless ranks get out to marine headquarters. I set the transponder snail's line to go out to East Blue Branch One right now. I was thinking of asking to request to dispatch me to marine headquarters since dad wants to execute a little kid but I don't want to get yelled at or get dad in trouble."

"You're the Helmeppo who started all this?" Koby shouted in surprise.

Helmeppo nodded and seemed to reach for the snail received before he lost the willpower and went back to sounding miserable and pathetic as he warbled, "I'm only ranked as a Seaman Recruit but I started as a chore boy and signed on so I could live on base with my dad, you know. He's in charge so everyone had to listen to my orders too. I really, really don't want to be yelled at."

Koby, feeling angry over the entire situation that this kid and his father had caused everyone, squared up and snapped his fingers in front of Helmeppo's face as he scolded, "Stop whining already. Your choice was your choice and you can't change the past. But even if you make a mistake you can always fix it if you try. So what are you going to do about this mess you made?"

Helmeppo curled in on himself with his face gleaming with nervous sweat, his lower lip wobbled a bit before he sucked in a deep breath and said with a shaky voice, "I can call Marine Headquarters to tell them what my dad has doing to this town."

"Well then, let's go," Koby said as he reached his hand out for Helmeppo to take, "As a future marine I can't let a group of pirates do more than me to help this town. It would be too embarrassing to be left out of everything, right?"

Helmeppo wiped his face with his sleeve and let Koby help him up to his feet. Once Helmeppo was standing though a contemplative expression crossed his face before he used all his strength to shove Koby off the end of the dock into the water below. He haughtily looked down and said, "Pirates you said? You idiot. I can just report that this town is full of pirate sympathizers and then my dad's extreme actions won't be punished at all. Even him executing disobedient marines and reporting them as dying in the line of service will make more sense then. He'll finally be proud of me!"

Koby watched helplessly as Helmeppo began to reach for the mouthpiece of the transponder snail but stopped with his jaw dropped open and eyes blown wide as he stared at something beyond Koby further out in the sea.

Koby turned in the water and saw the giant purple shark fin slicing through the water for only a split second before Dawn-the-shark, now over twenty feet long for some reason, launch herself out of the water towards a now screaming Helmeppo who dropped the transponder snail in his terror, and swallow him down in one massive gulp before landing with a splash on the other side of the dock. Dawn-the-seagull landed on the edge of the dock, looked down at Koby and asked with a concerned tone of voice, "Are you alright, Koby?"

"You ate him!" Koby shouted up at the seagull and scrambled to get out of the water once he remembered a giant shark was nearby and shouted some more, "How could you just go and eat a human like that!? Not to mention how did you get so huge!?"

Dawn-the-seagull looked exasperated as she said, "I didn't eat him, really. I'm just holding him for a little while, he already fainted in the air sac so the lure won't be damaged. Have you ever heard a story about a guy named Jonah who was eaten by a big fish? I'm going to have the lure spit him out onto shore on the other side of the island and he'll be perfectly fine (though maybe a bit traumatized)."

Koby finally made it to the top of the dock and carefully picked up the dropped transponder snail, patting it on its head to make it feel better. Dawn the seagull pecked at his hand to get his attention and said, "Here - you can use that snail to call in and report Morgan's actions while I meet up with Ann in order to bring her to where Luffy and Zoro are. You can handle this and make steps to be the next great Marine Hero, right little jarhead?"

Koby gaped up at the seagull and then down again at the happily (purring?) transponder snail twice before he nodded with conviction and said, "I'll take care of it, Dawn! You can count on me!"

Once Dawn flew away Koby steeled his nerves and picked up the receiver to make a report. Kat-cha - the bored expression of the answering marine mirrored on the snail as he dully said, "You've reached East Blue Marine Branch One. Please identify your name, rank, and ID number before relaying your message."

"Oh, well I'm not a marine yet but my name's Koby and I arrived at East Blue Branch 153 in Shells Town to join up. I need to make an emergency report though! Captain Morgan, the base commander here, has been executing town citizens and is right now probably losing a fight against one pirate attacking the base in order to free some town citizens he was getting ready to execute. It's a big mess here and I need to report it so Morgan can't get away with it!"

The face mirrored on the snail had switched from bored to irritated halfway through Koby's report and the other marine said, "How did you end up with marine equipment? Return it to the nearest marine and know that is illegal to prank call a marine base. I don't want to hear from you again, kid."

Koby's jaw dropped when the line disconnected but he was determined to do what he needed to and so he called in again. The snail had the same expression of boredom but switched quickly to irritation when Koby began to speak again, "This isn't a prank, I swear! I just want to make a report because it isn't even just the citizens in town Captain Morgan is terrorizing and executing, its other marines too! Seaman Recruit Helmeppo confirmed it that the marines Morgan executes are reported as dying in the line of duty and it isn't criminals killing them it's Morgan!"

Ka-lick. The line disconnected again and for a third time Koby called in and didn't notice the expression mirrored on the transponder snail wasn't bored and irritated anymore but serious and grim faced. Koby started again, "This is not a prank! I want more than anything to be a marine who protects people and who catches bad guys. Captain Morgan isn't protecting the town or the marine's here - he's hurting them! I'm not a marine yet so you need to help me so I can help them! You're a real marine aren't you? Take responsibility and stop things from getting worse!"

"Hey kid. Who did you say you were?" A different voice on the transponder snail asked gruffly.

"I-I'm Koby and I want to be a marine, sir. I don't want to stand and do nothing while a pirate does all the work saving people here."

There was a muffled scratching sound of some kind before the gruff voice spoke again, "I'll ignore that talk about a pirate for now. How old are you, Koby?"

The official age requirement for joining the marines was seventeen so Koby lied and said, "I'm seventeen, sir."

There was more scratching noises before the voice said, "You realize that you'd start out in the marines as a chore boy cleaning the head and polishing up the walls, floors and hull of the ship. You wouldn't be permitted to go out of your way to catch bad guys or be a hero at all. Can you really accept that, kid?"

"It doesn't matter what my rank is! I'd try to help save people even if I were ranked a chore boy my entire life!" Koby said, feeling completely serious in his statement.

The way the voice laughed didn't sound comforting but his next words dropped Koby's jaw again, "Well consider yourself conscripted into the marines, kid. Can you believe your application to join as a chore boy just coincidentally appeared on my desk right now? My stamp of approval looks like it just dried on the corner here. I'm Captain Smoker, the base commander for East Blue Marine Branch One in Loguetown, and I like marines like you. For now your assignment is to do what you can to gather intel at that base for the next two weeks until I send one of my men to pick you up. Let me know about what happens regarding that pirate attack once everything settles. You're ID when you call in by the way is EBR21682. Get going, chore boy. Your first assignment is to help to 'clean up' Branch 153 even if it means working with a pirate for now. Go and do your assignment, marine."

The transponder snail disconnected and Koby felt a bit numb. Huh. Apparently he was a marine now after he shouted at another Marine Captain. Remembering his new mission Koby slapped himself in the forehead and began to run as fast as he could towards the base. He was allowed to help Luffy and if by the most insignificant chance possible that Luffy ended up failing in taking down Captain Morgan he would jump in and hope he could make a difference.

Luffy - despite running around an ugly marine base and being attacked (uselessly) with guns and (weak, easily avoided) swords was having a grand old time. None of these marines were anywhere close to being as tough as his grandpa. He bet even wimpy Koby could probably beat a few of them. One marine yelped as Luffy pulled him close and said, "I'm looking for Zoro's swords! Help me find them!"

"Eek! They'll either be in the barracks, in the contraband room or in Master Helmeppo's room!"

The marine yelped again when Luffy pushed him in front of him and shouted, "Take me to all those places! I need to find his katana so he'll be on my crew! The Pirate King! The name's gonna be mine and he can't be the world's greatest swordsman without a sword!"

The marine pointed out the way to the barracks where Luffy picked up five katanas, ran with him to contraband where Luffy picked out two katanas and finally dragged the hapless marine up to the officer quarters where Helmeppo stayed and found three katanas. Luffy huffed and scratched at his head feeling confused.

"There are three katanas here...I keep finding katanas everywhere but which one is Zoro's though?" Luffy asked out loud though the marine couldn't answer since he had already passed out (or was faking it in order to avoid fighting the monster pirate captain) so he took all three of them. Out of the ten katanas he had picked up around the base one of them had to be Zoro's by now right? It would be easy to find Zoro in order to check. All he had to do was follow the sound of destruction and screaming that he wasn't causing.

Two floors down and five halls to the left he found Zoro fighting through a bunch of harried looking marines with only the chains shackled around his wrists and Luffy cheerily shouted "Zoro! I think I won the race!"

The sound of his shouting distracted Zoro from his defense and so Luffy tackled Zoro out the window to get both of them away from the shots the marines fired from their rifles.

Once they landed in the courtyard filled with statue rubble Luffy showed Zoro the bouquet of swords and said, "I found a lot of katanas and didn't know which one was yours so I brought all of them."

Zoro looked at the swords and selected three out from the group, "These three belong to me because I use three sword style."

Dozens of marines came out from the base and showed up with Captain Morgan from town and surrounded them. Morgan was furious over the destruction on base and the absolute lack of respect or fear Luffy or Zoro had in their eyes, "Kill that pirate and Zoro! They're traitors to my rule!"

With a grin Zoro took his three swords, his chains still jangling with his movements, "Allow me to demonstrate my skill, Captain."

The surrounding platoon of marines shouted and yelped in panic as Zoro spun around like an enthusiastic grain reaper while Captain Morgan raged at both him and his marines in the back of the group.

"That's enough! The two of you who have betrayed me will die here!" Morgan pointed at Luffy and ordered "FIRE!"

The shots hit their target but Zoro had nothing to worry about as Luffy stretched and bounced the bullets away completely unharmed. The bullets actually kind of tickled as he shouted, "It's no use! Hahahaha!"

"What kind of human are you, Captain?" Zoro asked even as he kept fighting the lackeys of Morgan. They were kind of pathetic to be losing so badly to Zoro when he felt this tired and hungry.

"The one who will become the Pirate King. And call me Luffy because we're friends now, right?" Luffy ordered causing Zoro to grin around his sword wider.

Zoro replied in a scary way, "I'm going to be the world's greatest swordsman! I don't care if my name is clean or not. Bad guy, good guy, it no longer matters! As long as my name is known worldwide and reaches heaven and hell! If you ever do something that gets in the way of my goal I will have you cut open your stomach to apologize. Got it Luffy?"

"Got it Zoro," Luffy said with a satisfied smile as he bounced around acting as a bullet catcher so Zoro could fight unimpeded.

"If guns don't work on that rascal use your swords! Do I have to think of everything!?" Morgan shouted as though the rushing marines being stopped cold by Zoro were doing nothing.

"Zoro duck!" Luffy called out and immediately swept a long stretched kick around the courtyard of the base, kicking droves of marines at waist height and knocking them over while Zoro ducked low under his leg.

Morgan finally jumped in to attack Luffy, shouting all the while, "People like you without any status in the world have no right to oppose me! I am Marine Captain Ax-Hand Morgan!"

"My name is Luffy. Nice to meet you," Luffy said since that was what you were supposed to say when introducing yourself.

"Go to hell, straw hat!" Morgan yelled as he swung his ax hand at Luffy, who simply jumped over it. The attacks Morgan were striking were tearing up the ground and cutting holes along the walls as he constantly missed hitting the bouncy pirate. He was all power with no accuracy. Luffy bounced around and with both his feet pushed out kicked Morgan in the chest, knocking him over onto his back.

Morgan pushed himself up off the ground and snarled, "You little bastard! I'll kill you!"

He struck out at Luffy two - three - four more times, missing his target on each strike and Luffy called him out saying, "I'm not dead yet!" and punched him in his stupid looking metal jaw as hard as he could as he shouted, "High Caliber: Rubber Pistol!"

Morgan swayed on his feet once - then twice and toppled to the ground knocked completely unconscious. The marines stopped fighting and dropped their weapons in numb shock. Morgan had been completely defeated by this out - of - nowhere pirate.

"Captain Morgan lost! He's been defeated!" One of the marines shouted to the rest in shock.

"If you still want to execute me come and try!" Zoro said before he suddenly staggered and began to collapse, fatigue, exertion and starvation had all suddenly caught up to him and he couldn't stay conscious. The last thing he noticed before he completely blacked was the appearance of Ann and Koby. The hundreds of chickens he thought he saw following after them might have been a hallucination from the hunger.

The shock over Morgan's loss ended and the marines erupted into cheers of joy and relief.

"Hurrah!" "Yes!" "We're free!" "We're free from Morgan!"

Koby smiled with satisfaction over the reaction of the other marines. They were just as happy with Morgan's defeat as the townsfolk would be once the news reached them.

"Wait. What? You mean it was all Captain Morgan and his son and not all the marines at this base causing problems for the town?" Ann asked as she watched the marines celebrating over the utter defeat of their boss.

"Yeah, the marines here were just as scared of Morgan as the townsfolk were. Isn't that great?" Koby asked in delight since his dream of good guy marines weren't completely crushed after all. He couldn't wait to tell them he was a marine now that it wouldn't be embarrassing.

Ann winced and said, "Maybe the escape plan I started up was a bit overkill then."

Koby was about to ask what Ann meant by that but was distracted by the sound of a loud and long rooster call followed by hundreds of white chickens that suddenly began flooding into the marine base. The (terrifying?) hoard of chickens began to peck at and scratch at anyone wearing a marine uniform - including the unconscious Morgan. Koby rushed to help the marines control the situation by trying to herd the chickens away from the base.

Making use of the extra distraction Ann helped Luffy haul Zoro back to his feet in order to lead him away from the base to find him somewhere he could eat something. Dawn the seagull was flying above watching the group in satisfaction over the fact that no one was really hurt. Luffy, of course, noticed the pair of fluffy colorful chickens that Ann had strapped securely but gently to herself with a strip of calico linen and said, "Are you going to make grilled teriyaki chicken?"

Ann shook her head and said, "No. I'm taking them so we can have fresh eggs while we're sailing. Plus you told me to make a way to escape and get treasure and these girls are real treasure troves, believe me."

"Yummy! Let's make some omelets then!" Luffy cheered, his stomach growling in agreement.

The group came to a sudden stop though when Balloon landed in front of the crew and gave Ann a particularly annoyed expression. He winced in pain when Rika yanked on his feathers in her rush to get to the ground. Her mother was just as quick to dismount but far more gentle in handling his feathers.

Rika was immediately talking about how amazing Luffy and Zoro were, "You destroyed the statue! You beat Morgan! You're amazing!"

The sound that came from Zoro's stomach was more beastly than a mere growl which spurred Ririka to take action as only a mother and a cook could - she began to prepare to feed a group of hungry (starving) teenagers. She ushered them into her restaurant and immediately began preparing food.

Zoro revived when a bowl of soup was placed in front of him and then there was not much he remembered about the food in detail other than how satisfying it was to finally eat something. The only thing he remembered aside from the initial soup was the dish the little Rika had made for everyone - sweet rice balls. He was close to having a duel with Ann over the last one due in partly to the fact that she looked so happy over him eating it but mostly because starving made anything and everything taste amazing. Ann simply liked the sweet-salty taste she got when combining Rika's rice balls with her mother's salt seasoned ones.

"Where are we heading for next, Luffy?" Ann asked as they (finally) began slowing down their consumption of Ririka's entire restaurant while she casually fed the chickens dishes containing whole grains and shellfish which seemed to be their favorite foods.

"To the Grand Line, of course!" Luffy declared, and instantly amended, "or to find a musician first."

"Can I come with you Luffy? I want to be a great pirate like you. I could be your cabin girl." Rika begged earnestly which Luffy seemed genuinely conflicted over. It reminded him of when he asked Shanks the same thing. He didn't see Ririka shaking her head behind Rika, though that wouldn't have stopped him from asking his next question.

"How old are you, Rika?"

"I'm eight but I'll be nine in only ten months!" Rika said firmly.

Luffy shook his head and said, "You're too little. You need to be at least eleven to come out to sea with me to join my crew because that's how old Shanks was when he started."

Rika pouted and her mother looked relieved though both Zoro and Ann nodded in agreement. Most traditional apprenticeships started at eleven years old so Luffy's policy made sense even if it insinuated they might be getting a pirate apprentice while on Luffy's crew. The door to the restaurant pushed open and Koby rushed in, breathing heavily since he had been running around town looking for them.

"I can't believe you've just been sitting in here eating," Koby said, sounding more than a little stressed out as seemed to be usual for him. Koby produced a set of keys he had grabbed from the base and went around unlocking and unshackling Rika, Ririka and Zoro's chains and shackles. Rika and Ririka gladly returned their cuffs and chains to Koby but Zoro looped his chains around his waist like a belt over his haramaki and then held out his hand toward Koby and said, "I'd like to keep these for training. Give me the key, I'll need it until I can cut and break steel."

Koby gave it to him without a second thought and then began to babble at the crew.

"There's mass hysteria all around town. People are running in the streets cheering and spreading the news about Morgan being defeated while the other marines are on the defense against a weirdly tough attacking flock of chickens and roosters that showed up!" Koby blurted to the crew (Ann tried not to look guilty. The chickens here and their progeny for the next dozen generations would now always attack any marines that they spotted in exchange for her boon that they would be almost impossible to kill unless it was for food so they wouldn't be able to be killed easily. All because of her jumping the gun to curse the marines in this town without realizing that Morgan had been the source of everything bad), "I think now will be the best time for all of you to escape since everyone's distracted."

"Let's go then," Luffy said as he stood and stretched his arms over his head (but not all the way up to the ceiling since Makino never liked it when he did that). Zoro, Ann and Balloon followed Luffy out the door and got an eyeful of the chaos that Koby had mentioned. People really were running excitedly all around, the citizens shouting happily about their new freedom, the chickens running wild in the streets and the marines defending themselves against the agitated poultry that seemed intent on attacking them mercilessly.

The crew came down to the docks and as they boarded Dawn the ship (who seemed to have grown about one meter longer and half a meter wider and now had a new coop seat grown on the deck for Ann's chickens to have a place to nest in which Ann gave Dawn's figurehead a pet of gratitude over) Koby told them he was officially a marine now and then hesitatingly asked, "Luffy, even though we just met and I'm a marine will you still consider us friends?"

Luffy grinned at Koby and said, "Of course! Even though we have to part, we'll always be friends. I believe you'll be a strong marine in the future so work hard."

Koby saluted Luffy and said, "Of course I will! Thank you very much! I will never forget you for the rest of my life!"

Zoro grinned and said, "I've never seen a marine salute a pirate before."

"Koby! We'll definitely meet again someday!" Luffy called out with a grin and laughed in delight as they began to sail away. Chaos reigned, treasure had been pillaged and Luffy had new nakama. It had been a good afternoon.

Dawn the ship reabsorbed the seagull lure and shark lure in from her hull and told Luffy the story about what she had done to Morgan's son, who was still unconscious on the shore on the other side of the island getting a sunburn. The story caused Zoro to laugh with an almost scary gleam in his eyes when she got to the part where she swallowed him whole and only seemed a little disappointed that he was spat out instead of actually eaten. It would take the crew very little time to learn to tell the difference between a gleam of threat or glee that shone in his eyes.

Once they were far away from shore the two chickens Ann had taken from the town were finally placed on the deck so Luffy took the time to pick up the pink-orange-yellow chicken and rubbed it against his face grinning in absolute delight, "He's soft and fluffy! I'll name him Fluffy-Bunny-Bird! The other guy can be Fluffy-Kitty-Bird!"

"Better than what I was going to pick. I would've called them Yellow Chicken and Blue Chicken." Zoro said as he shrugged nonchalantly and sat down on the deck to rest up since he was getting tired.

Ann scowled at their contributions and said, "Those are terrible names! Not to mention I already named her Mango-Tango and her sister is Very-Berry. I found them so I get to name them - that's the rule."

Dawn laughed loudly and after a few moments to calm down she got ahold of herself and spoke with her voice rising up from the deck, "Everyone on this crew is awful at naming things. Luffy tried to name me "Lion Talking Plant" and "Hungry Snake Plant" and about fifty other things before I let him pick Dawn in the end. Believe me, being named after an island is the best result he could come up with."

Luffy nodded his head in agreement, still snuggling against the fluffy bird that seemed oddly fine with being nearly smothered by him, "That rule is fine. I found Dawn and named her and you found Tango-Mango and Berry-Very so you get to name them."

Ann shook her fist at Luffy and shouted, "You're doing that on purpose aren't you?"

"Doing what?...Very-Cherry isn't going to stay here all the time will it?" Zoro asked with a slightly mischievous grin as he looked down at his lap where the blue-indigo-violet chicken decided to settle in for a nap with him. What a weird crew he had joined to have a talking ship and so many birds around. Though it would be nice to have some companions around again at least.

Ann threw her arms around Balloon's neck and screamed in frustration into her friend's feathers. Her crewmates were ridiculous! She could tell Balloon was laughing at her too when he cawed in amusement at her actions like a drunk crow. She wouldn't admit that it was funny but for now she decided to give them all a cold shoulder to make herself feel better.

She was out like a light within a few moments and Balloon grumbled at her before he preened back her bangs. He had been too far away from her today and she had fallen into her usual bad habit. She had used too much magic in a short amount of time and now she had to use her body's energy to recover. Two feather spells and a curse was a lot of energy to use in only an hour or so and she would likely wake up even hungrier than she had been in the restaurant in a few hours. She really did seem happier being on this ship though and so for that Balloon was happier for now as well.

Balloon watched as Luffy bounced about the deck, still holding his claimed fluffy chicken as he chatted excitedly to Zoro who seemed to be settling in to nap with his own bird though he listened with one ear anyway.

"Dawn tells the best stories! Since Zoro's a swordsman tell us one with an awesome swordsman it it!"

"Alright. We begin in a time hundreds of years ago when wars neverending ravaged around the world. During this time there was one swordsman of ultimate power and grace known as the legendary and dangerous assassin "Hitokiri Battosai." As the wars came to an end however, he grew weary of killing and found appreciation of life, and thus, he vowed never to kill again taking up the name of Kenshin. In his personal path for self-redemption, he now used his skills to help those in need and fight for the weak that were oppressed by wicked swordsmen who still craved senseless bloodshed. With the use of a "reverse-edged" sword, Kenshin managed to fight utilizing his awesome sword skills without having to break his vow of non-killing."

To be continued…

* * *

Up next: A pirate and his crew have taken over a town. Luffy is separated from the crew and meets a redheaded girl with attitude while Zoro and Ann are left to deal with the townsfolk wary of pirates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Best wishes to you all until I get the next part out.


	4. Chapter Four - Bring Your Child To Work Day:

 

**_Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. - Helen Keller_ **

 

Zoro woke up with the feeling of sun shining on his face, the smell of salted fish-and-chicken-egg soup and the distant sound of Luffy whooping and cheering with excitement. He noticed immediately that Berry-Berry was napping in the crook of his arm (which had become her favorite napping spot on the ship) Mingle-Mango was making a racket in the coop and that Ann and Balloon were nowhere to be seen on the small boat. Zoro carefully moved the bird on him over to sleep in the coop by her sister before he stretched his arms over his head and looked over to where Luffy was making a racket.

 

Zoro blinked a few more times to make sure he was awake because it seemed that Luffy was holding the reigns and riding bareback on a purple shark with lighter purple polka dots.

 

“What’s he doing?”

 

“Luffy wanted to play while we’re stopped for me to go fishing again,” Dawn’s voice came up from the deck to which Zoro nodded. He’d gotten used to the disembodied vessel’s voice within the first day of sailing with his new crew. It had been ten days since they left Shells Town and they had already stopped to fish four times and hadn’t seen an island in all that time. According to Luffy they were just exploring on their way to the Grand Line - not lost.

 

Zoro had asked a day ago why a living ship couldn’t even find an island and Dawn had explained simply that she wasn’t a navigator - she was a ship and needed to get directions to get somewhere just like anybody else in the world.

 

“Ann took Balloon up to see if she could spot an island nearby where we can stock up on some fresh water and get some red meat for Luffy since he was watching Balloon and drooling while I was making the soup earlier.”

 

After hearing this Zoro looked up into the sky and about 4000 meters up he spotted the black and white form of Balloon who was carrying Ann on his back as usual. Zoro appreciated that the little ship kept him up to date with what was going on without having to ask and went over to the wooden pot that Dawn somehow could keep heated up without a fire and ladled some soup into a newly grown wooden bowl to have some breakfast. Food was food after all, even if this was the only thing they had eaten for the last five days. The soup was as noticeably shimmery from the weird fancy eggs the chickens laid as usual and hearing that it had been Dawn who made the soup this time instead of Ann (since Luffy made everything either burnt or raw and Zoro could only burn rice or ferment it into sake nearly instantaneously somehow) Zoro decided to be very careful while he ate.

 

He had nearly cracked a tooth on a gold nugget Dawn had left in her last batch for “flavor” and he didn’t want to go through that again. The ship didn’t seem to understand that its tastes and the crew’s tastes were a bit different from each other. He had just been lucky that he hadn’t gotten eggshells like Ann or fishbones like Luffy (though Luffy did try to eat the bones anyway.)

 

Once Zoro finished eating his breakfast (gold nugget tucked into the inside of his haramaki for him to add to the crew’s “treasure chest” which was just an old wooden box without a latch or lock at a later time) he heard a very unusual whistling noise that stopped when a large mortar landed in the water close to where Luffy had been riding the shark and exploded into a surprisingly large fountain of fiery fury.

 

At the same time as the surprise explosion the long, serpentine head of a sea monster that was wearing a kabuto helmet rose up out of the water and roared out an oddly glowing pink fireball attack directly towards Balloon and Ann up in the sky.

 

Dawn responded to the double attacks by trying to secure her current passengers but was knocked about in the explosion and ended up on a swell what washed them away from the attack in towards a smallish island that suddenly appeared as they got closer to its shore. (Zoro had just enough time to triumphantly think, ‘I knew islands could appear and disappear! Take that, Johnny!’) Dawn washed onto the beach on the artificially created tidal wave and landed with a heavy, painful crack.

 

“Yeouch!” Dawn yelped and felt the new crack in her hull widen when she shifted her lines and sails in order to try moving. With a touch of annoyance in her voice she announced, “I think I have a crack on my starboard side.”

 

Zoro stood up from where he had fallen, sprawled on the deck and after looking around once asked, “Do I need to find you a ship doctor? There might be a town somewhere on this island since we’re being attacked.”

 

“I’ll be fine. I just need to rest up here and eat some food and I’ll have myself repaired by tomorrow.” Dawn said as her figurehead grinned with clenched teeth, “I can only control two lures at once though and the shark one Luffy was playing with got him somewhere along the shore of this island before it broke down completely and I lost connection to it so he should be fine. I have my second lure still fishing so I  can get food to me but I’ll keep an eye out for Ann and Balloon in case they come by and make a new one to go along with you. We need to look for Luffy before he runs into too much trouble without any backup. I’ll wait here and guard the treasure while I heal up my damage.”

 

A small bird grew out of Dawn’s mast and flew down to land on top of Zoro’s head. He was already jogging down the beach and casually waved his hand back in response and decided already that a ship guarding itself was probably going to be the least weird thing about this little island adventure. 

 

The only thing Luffy had been focusing his attention on before the sudden surprise explosion had been on how much fun it was playing water rodeo (one of the words Dawn had made up that he assumed meant ‘playing rough with animals’) with Dawn’s newly improved shark shaped lurey. After the explosion he had nearly been boiled, drowned and was sent flying off the shark into the water and nearly instantly began to sink. The last thing he could remember clearly was watching a burnt and falling apart shark swimming towards him. He didn’t feel the plant shark nudge him up out of the water and out onto the closest beach before he faded away completely but he wasn’t worried. A captain went down with their ship and he knew his ship wouldn’t sink yet. He had full confidence that Dawn would fish him out of the water before he actually drowned.

 

The shark lure fell apart and broke connection to Dawn completely almost as soon as Luffy was brought to shore. Its form now looked more like a mass of tangled burnt purple seaweed rather than its previous shark shape. Less than a minute later there arrived a pair of pirates armed with cutlasses and ready to loot. They looked clownishly comical with one that was tall and thin and the other short and fat instead.

 

“Looks like ‘e drowned, don’tcha think?” the tall thin pirate asked as he nudged Luffy’s motionless body with his foot.

 

The short and fat pirate expressed his disgust by covering his mouth and nose with his hand in case there was a bad smell coming from the supposed corpse and spoke with his voice obviously muffled, “Check him for valuables. He could have bullets or gold in his pockets, right?”

 

“Why don’ you check ‘im? I ‘ad to check the last two guys we found.” The tall one argued back.

 

“Because touching dead bodies is gross and you don’t mind touching gross things like that.” The fat pirate said, still feeling disgusted at the thought. 

 

Right afterwards he felt something sharp jab suddenly into his backside and with a yelp he spun to look behind him. He looked left and right before slightly downwards and saw a knight shorter than himself who was pointing a sharpened spear at him. 

 

“What the?- Oh, not you again. Get out of here you little brat or I really will kill you this time!” the pirate said as he shook his cutlass threateningly at the small knight. 

 

“Give me back my dad you stupid pirates!” The small knight shouted as she stabbed her spear at the pirate again. The long reach of the spear caused the pirate to stumble back until he stuck his foot in the middle of Luffy's chest which (since he was made of rubber) simply caved in without resistance. This, rather than the angry child with the spear, caused the fat pirate to freak out and shout in disgust when a gob of water spurt out of Luffy's mouth and hit his backside.

 

“Ugh - disgusting! Look what mess you made me step in! I'll kill you! Help me Arry!”

 

Arry, the tall and thin pirate, loyally drew his own sword and the two pirates began chasing the small armored kid around the beach. The tall and short duo ran around shouting, threatening more violence and kicking sand onto Luffy as they ran around and over him in circles, the girl jumping over his body occasionally, but the pirates stepping all over him without any regard to respecting the dead.

 

Luffy suddenly sat up and loudly shouted, “It's so loud here! Stop stepping on me!”

 

The two pirates clung to each other in terror and screamed, “It's a zombie!”

 

“Really? Where?” Luffy asked in excitement as he looked around.

 

“It's you - you idiot!” the pair screamed angrily as they pointed their cutlasses accusingly at Luffy.

 

Luffy was disappointed, seeing a zombie would have been cool. “Oh. I'm not a zombie.”

 

The short pirate shook his sword at Luffy and yelled, “I'm gonna kill you and take whatever's in your pockets because the boss said we could loot any bodies we find on the beach!”

 

Gearing up for a fight, Luffy began to cock his fist back but before he could let it loose someone else attacked the short pirate instead - a small person in armor stabbed a sharpened spear at the pirate and shouted, “Stop ignoring me and tell me where my dad is!”

 

The short pirate ducked under the spear and wildly swung out his sword causing the sword to coil up and shoot out like a spring to increase the thrust. The strike knocked up against the helmet of the armored kid but didn’t seem to harm the kid. The visor of the helmet had only been knocked up revealing the scowling face of an annoyed looking red haired girl with green eyes who fell onto her back and lifted her spear to block the pirate's second, weaker strike.

 

“Stupid!” she shouted up at the short pirate, “Why'd you stupid pirates even kidnap my dad if you're too stupid to even use his inventions right!”

 

Before the pirate could do anything other than make an angrier expression the kid twisted the bottom of her spear causing the sharp end to shoot forward, scratching the fat pirate deeply in his cheek as he flinched back instinctively. The pirate shouted in rage and struck down with his sword, intending to kill the girl but got hit in the head from twenty feet away by Luffy who wasn’t quite sure what was going on but knew that trying to kill a kid was a jerk move.

 

“‘Ey you! Leave Ronny alone! Stay outta this an’ we’ll get back to killing you soon,” the tall pirate shouted as he waved his sword threateningly in Luffy’s direction but stalked forward to help his buddy take care of the little girl once and for all.

 

Ignoring Luffy turned out to be a bad idea though when Luffy sling-shotted his arm all the way over to the pair and punched them far away from the little kid, causing a long trench to be formed in the sand. The two pirates stumbled back to their feet but when Luffy raised his fist again for another round the two decided if the crazy beach girl now had backup like Luffy it would be wiser to run away.

 

Luffy looked down to where the girl was still sitting in the sand and with stars in his eyes said, “Your armor and spear are so cool! Let me borrow the spear!”

 

Luffy made grasping motions with his hands, indicating he was eager to snatch the spear away but the girl pulled it closer to herself and stood up to her full height (still a foot shorter than Luffy) and said, “Who’re you? I’ve never seen anyone who could stretch like you.”

 

“I’m Monkey D Luffy and I’m going to be King of the Pirates!” he said proudly to which the girl immediately showed her distaste for by trying to stab Luffy in his face with her spear which he easily dodged.

 

She continued to take a stab at him all while she shouted and yelled at him, “Ugh - a pirate! I hate pirates! You stink! You’re mean! You kidnapped my dad! Give him back! Tell your boss to give him back!”

 

“Hey! I don’t have a boss! I’m the captain of my crew!” Luffy argued with the little girl and ducked around another spear strike with a twist that would have dislocated the spine of anyone who wasn't made out of rubber. 

 

“No, you aren’t, you stupid pirate. That jerk Ganzack is the only captain on this island!” the girl argued back before suddenly her expression changed from anger to surprise and a split second later after that stopped stabbing at him and with an excited grin on her face she said, “Ah-ha! I understand now! There's finally some mutiny in the ranks! You want to be captain and got thrown overboard and now you want to kick Ganzack’s stupid butt in revenge, right?”

 

“No. I want to eat.” Luffy said bluntly and turned to walk away from the girl.

 

“Wait!” she said and feeling desperate for help without thinking blurted out, “I’ll let you use my spear and give you all my food if you help me find my dad, he's who I treasure the most in the world!”

 

“Really?!” Luffy shouted excitedly until his stomach let out a loud growl and he hunched over in misery, “Can we eat first? I’m really, really hungry.”

 

“Fine, follow me. You can eat first and then we’ll go,” the girl began to walk down the beach, leading the way as Luffy followed behind, excited over the promise of some food. They walked a little past a kilometer to a combination home and shop outside of a distant town with a faded sign hanging by the door that simply read “Herring’s Curiosities” with the name Herring crossed out in black and the words ‘Dead Man’s’ freshly painted in yellow beneath it.

 

Upon seeing the sign the girl scowled and with her spear unhooked the loops of the sign hanging on the hooks above the door in order to take it down. As she unlocked the shop she muttered, “I’ll get Geel and Iaana for painting this later. I don’t care if they go crying to their mamas either.”

 

Once she opened the door to the home-shop Luffy followed behind her and began to look around oohing and ahhing over the different objects around the shop. Sand had been scattered and tracked over the majority of the floors and there were only a few little crab themed clocks, music boxes, and wind-up crab toys scattered around mostly barren shelves. If there were other nautical themed things they had been removed long ago.

 

The most amazing thing in the shop however was a pair of playsets in the middle of the room. The first playset was modeled after a castle and had three five foot tall mannequins standing out in front in elaborate costumes: a queen wearing a beautiful blue gown and handheld fan inlaid with shining metal and sparkling stones, a king with a scepter as ornate as the fan the queen held who wore a velveteen crown and a knight striped of his armor and weapon.

 

The second playset had Luffy all over it. A pirate fort (indicated by the skull and crossbones flag raised above it) that had not just three, but five mannequins standing in the front. A mannequin pirate navigator wearing orange and white stripes that came with a spyglass and compass, a mannequin pirate gunner in a red bandana with a real black powder keg and cannon wicks, a mannequin pirate bosun wearing a leather belt and pouch with a little cat-o-nine tails, a mannequin everyman pirate with an eyepatch and little cutlass and best of all a mannequin captain in a fancy feathered hat with a cool hat pin in it, red captain long coat and a treasure map. Luffy had already squeezed himself into the captain’s coat and was poking at the eyepatch pirate with the spyglass by the time the girl had realized he wasn’t following her and went back to find him again.

 

Seeing that he was playing around she puffed up indignantly and yelled, “Hey - we came here for you to eat not for you to play with the merchandise. Leave that alone, my dad will need to sell it once he comes back so we can have some money while he builds up inventory again.”

 

Luffy shucked off the play captain’s coat but didn’t stop poking at the mannequins as he absently said, “You sure have fun looking pirate toys, my brothers and I just got ours from the stuff people threw out. You should build a tall tree fort like we did!”

 

“A tree fort? That would be so cool!” the girl said before remembering her mission and saying, “Never mind that! I have the food - here. Eat up so we can go to Ganzack’s base and rescue my dad.”

 

She handed Luggy a small pack of seed cakes, five dried crabs, a pair of hard boiled quail eggs, six strips of snake jerky and a single fresh oyster. Luffy stuffed the seed cakes in his mouth even as he complained, “Aww, you don’t have any meat?”

 

“Of course I don’t. Meat is expensive you stupid pirate,” the girl said crossly, clanking a little bit as she crossed her armored arms in front of herself impatiently.

 

Luffy polished off the rest of the food (including the shells) and with another pout said, “I’m still hungry.”

 

“We’ll get you more food but only after you finish helping me. You seem a little stupid so I’ll take you back to Ganzack’s base but I think you can probably beat him if we get caught,” she straightened up and said, “You have my word as a future pira- er I mean my word as a future knight that I will fight without fear. I’m the toughest kid on the entire island after all!”

 

“Can you dress up in one of these?” Luffy asked as he pointed at the little mannequins in pirate clothes.

 

The girl crossed her arms and said, “No way! Even if I still liked pirates I’d still wear the knight armor if I was gonna invade a pirate base. As my dad says, ‘Medaka may be a ruffian but Medaka isn’t stupid’ after all.”

 

“Wow, we should probably pick up Medaka on our way to the base then, shouldn’t we?” Luffy said, feeling proud of himself for coming up with such a great idea.

 

“You stupid pirate - I’m Medaka,” she snapped and pointed out the door, “Let’s go. The sooner we find my dad the sooner you can eat some more.”

 

Luffy went. He was still playing with the little toy spyglass, had the cool hat pin stuck in his straw hat as he ran after Medaka but she wasn’t scolding at him over it so he knew it was fine. With any luck he’d get more food (maybe even real meat) at some point during this adventure after all. 

 

“~Do what I want, 'cause a pirate is free ~ I am a pirate! ~Yar har, fiddle di dee ~ Being a pirate is alright with me, ~Do what I want 'cause a pirate is free, ~I am a pirate!” He cheerily began singing off tune as he followed behind Medaka to which she tried to ignore because if there was one thing she had learned from the pirates now living on her island it was that pirates were awful. Even if it was only their singing.

 

Fwaaash!

 

The sound of an explosion down at sea level was just enough warning to allow Balloon and Ann to avoid the follow up attack from below. The last place Ann had expected to be attacked was 4000 meters above the East Blue but the pink flamed attack was dodged by Balloon, who swooped out of the way just in time. Ann turned her brass telescope in the direction that the attack came from and saw a sea monster wearing a kabuto helmet - its mouth was still expelling pink smoke from the blast.

 

It didn’t seem to be a sea king but instead a magic familiar to the oddly armored man who was standing on top of the helmet of the sea monster. It was probably a magic using pirate like Spiel had been - one with a magical animal companion like herself but a water based one instead of a sky one like hers.

 

Fortunately this particular magic user didn't seem to be using air magic like Spiel had specialized in. Being up on Balloon's back gave Ann a lot more magic (all bird themed, which in her opinion wasn't much use in a fight) but it also gave Balloon amplified magical abilities that Ann's own magic powered up in return. A roc's essence (feathers, blood or otherwise) could amplify any magician's own powers but a roc who's own powers were amplified could do interesting things.

 

Balloon's beak opened wide and what appeared to be a beam of white light blasted down at the magic user and sea monster, though the sea monster evaded the attack thanks to its partner's direction.

 

Things like blasting compressed magic beams at their opponents. 

 

Balloon's feathers hardened and glinted in the light like sharpened knives before he twisted into a dizzyingly fast barrel roll causing the sharp feathers to shoot down at their attackers who once again dodged and began swimming away in a single direction in a seemingly desperate move to escape the aerial attacks.

 

Or turning their feathers into razor sharp knives.

 

After soaring upward, Balloon and Ann followed their attacker and target by dropping out of the sky at a high speed directly towards them. All in all Ann decided that she and Balloon were doing fairly well for their first magic battle since their run in with Spiel - at least up until they ran into the magic barrier surrounding the island that the other magic user and familiar had ducked behind.

 

It felt like they had flown into a wall of thick glue. Ann could spot a previously invisible island now - the barrier had been hiding it completely and now that she and Balloon were stuck in it they could finally see through it. Instead of rapidly crashing down into the ocean below she and Balloon were falling like they were in a waterfall of cold syrup. They were going down but not very quickly. 

 

The voice of the armor wearing, magic using pirate was loud enough to reach her high up in the air and he sounded both like he was kicking up a fuss about her crew showing up and with a laugh was also utterly delighted in his win against Ann and Balloon. 

 

“Kanininini! That’s what you get for underestimating me you stupid witch! I have all the important skills in the world: science, magic and battle ability! Nothing and no one can stop me now! I will be the greatest of all! The next pirate king even!”

 

Balloon voiced his disagreement with the pirate’s egocentric statement with an angry ‘geshaaa’ and Ann echoed her agreement with his statement as she boldly said, “Not a chance! My captain is the one who’s going to be the pirate king.”

 

The magic using pirate scoffed and said, “Your captain will be dealt with soon enough, witch. He’ll be trapped on my island with nowhere to escape. I’ve incapacitated his ship and that scraggly beast tamer of yours has already been dealt with thanks to my bomb. Once I bury you and your pet under the edge of my barrier I’ll have all the time I need in the world to crush your captain before I leave this place for good.”

 

“And what’s the name of this self-proclaimed future pirate king from this sea of schemers?” Ann taunted from above.

 

“I know better than to fall for that trick, witch. I’m no fool that just started practicing magic recently,” he said with a haughty expression on his face. Ann and Balloon were now low enough stuck in the barrier for Ann to make up the details of this magician’s appearance more clearly.

 

He was a normal sized man who’s crab-like armor looked even more ridiculous up close than it had been from a distance. The armor on his back even included  large crab claw shaped shoulder gauntlets. He also was wearing blue pants and a blue ankle long cape. He had purple hair that was long and tied up into a ponytail and a purple beard. He had red rings around each of his eyes like a malevolent panda and an X-shaped scar on his left temple. On the top of his head he wore a black tricorn hat with what Ann assumed to be was his jolly roger on it.

 

He stood full of confidence on top the head of his sea monster companion who had a humped body, four flippers, and a long, flexible neck sticking out of the water. Its jaws alone looked large enough to swallow a human being whole. Its sole accessory was a plated kabuto helmet, emblazoned with his magician partner’s jolly roger and also amusingly enough adorned with crab claws so it matched the crab aesthetic of its partner as well.

 

Ann responded to his honestly very wise decision by saying, “Well it looks like we’re at an impasse. You won’t tell me your name and I can’t just leave my crew stuck on this hidden island of yours.  I’ll just tell you now that my captain hits problems like you pretty hard. Once I get free though you’ll wish I had been the one to take you out of commission.”

 

The pirate scoffed at Ann’s statement and said, “Don’t be stupid, witch. This is the strongest magical barrier I’ve ever made. I’ve been growing it for six months already. It keeps outsider eyes off the island, keeps the people here nice and docile like cute little sheep, and traps anyone with even the slightest amount of magical abilities trying to enter at the edge where I can feed them to Plesiosaurus here.”

 

The sea monster smiled it’s own greedy grin and opened its unhinged jaw like a snake, accidentally tipping both its helmet and the armored pirate down into the water below. It snapped its mouth shut at the pirate’s shout of alarm and looked down into the water with concern in its eyes. The pirate broke through the surface of the sea and while treading in the water glared up at the sea monster and shouted, “What did I say! Don’t open your mouth that wide when you have the helmet on! Get that helmet back on and eat this witch and her bird once they get stuck on the knoll. I’ve got plans to complete.”

 

The pirate butterfly stroked to the shore and to Ann’s amusement his armor made him look like a crab scuttling in the water. He may have been a fairly good black magic user but he obviously wasn’t used to fighting a magic battle. You never left a field you created if you didn’t know what type of magic the other person had. She pulled a feather from her pouch and went to work in unsticking herself and Balloon from this web with her own spell. She was sure Luffy and Zoro could handle themselves for a little while.

 

Zoro made it all the way to the island town without seeing any sign of either Luffy or Ann. As he was just stepping into town though a pair of teenagers about thirteen years old or so came running full speed from somewhere behind him and tripped over each other just as they passed him by. Their hard landing had them spilling the buckets of yellow paint and the brushes they had been holding all over themselves and the cobblestone street.

 

The two teens spotted Zoro standing above them from where they lay fallen in the road. They both had unruly blond hair though the one on the left had darker skin and dark brown eyes while the one on the right had freckles and lighter brown eyes.

 

The kid on the right outright glared at Zoro and accused, “Hey you tripped us you jerk! Just wait ‘til I tell my mom!”

 

The looped chain around Zoro's harakami clinked a little bit as he ghosted his hand over his swords and with a hard look in his eyes asked, “Did I?”

 

His friend, having slightly more self preservation skills than his friend did, elbowed the freckled kid hard and said, “No sir, our mistake. We were fleeing for our lives away from the blood red beast's lair and Iaana's imagination was overreacting. Right Iaana?”

 

The false accuser agreed right away and said, “Yes, my mistake Geel. I most definitely tripped over myself on the cobblestone path.”

 

“The blood red beast? Is this beast known for attacking or blowing up ships who wander too close to this island?” Dawn asked from where she was settled up in Zoro's hair which caused the two teens to startle in alarm. She had been camouflaged pretty well up there since her lure was as marimo green as Zoro's own hair. 

 

“The blood red beast sunk your ship?” the slightly smarter boy, Geel apparently, asked as his skin paled significantly, “I once saw the beast throw a stone so hard that it cracked a tree apart so it could be true.”

 

“Really? I once saw the beast wrestle a fifteen foot sea snake from the ocean and kill it with just her teeth.”

 

“Is this blood red beast a sixty foot long sea monster who wears a kabuto helmet?” Dawn asked.

 

“What? No way! The blood red beast's a nightmare demon disguised as a seemingly adorable little girl. She broke Serpo's arm when she was only three years old.” Iaana frantically explained.

 

“I remember when I was ten years old she got into a serious brawl with Big Jaune. She walked away without a scratch while he still has scars to this day from the fight. He hides in the smithy whenever she actually comes into town ‘cause she still terrifies him.”

 

“Even with pirates living on the island she's still somehow scarier to me than they are.”

 

“True. It just isn’t right for a girl to be so strong.” The two young teens exchanged doleful looks at each other and then stopped to watch Zoro, seeming to be waiting for something.

 

There was a long beat of silence.

 

Zoro (deciding the encounter was now over) began to walk past them further into town. The two boys seemed shocked and together they called out “Wait!” 

 

Zoro didn’t wait.

 

Iaana continued to talk as he and Geel trailed behind Zoro (their paint and brushes left in the middle of the road without a care) as he said, “You realize we’re talking about a girl younger than us that’s strong enough to destroy trees and give scars to the blacksmith’s apprentice, right?”

 

“Why does that matter?” Zoro asked rhetorically, though he received a response anyway from Geel.

 

“Because everyone on the island knows that little girls shouldn’t go around beating up all the boys on the island and being all rough - they ought to be more delicate and play nicer, right?”

 

“I really don’t care about what people should or shouldn’t be able to do,” Zoro said flatly. So what if a little girl was beating up all the boys who tried to fight her? It was more nostalgic for Zoro rather than something to be bothered over in fact.

 

He was fully in town now and the place looked really nice with clean gray cobblestone streets everywhere. The colors of the town looked bright and cheery with houses and businesses that were built with brick red stones and roof tiles that were painted sky blue. There were well groomed trees growing out of their designated areas every ten to fifteen feet apart and none of the business signs or windows seemed to be sun-bleached, scratched or chipped.

 

Right in front of an ornate water fountain however there were two wooden carts that the townsfolk were loading up with parcels, baskets of food and packages in an urgent though unpanicked manner. There were four burly looking pirates (two stationed at each cart) who were standing watch over the proceedings in a laid back manner that indicated some degree of a familiar, though monotonous, job.

 

“I think we just found the source of that sea monster and the explosion,” Dawn spoke candidly with her voice softly down to Zoro who nodded in agreement, “If I know anything about Luffy’s luck though I’d say he’ll either be befriending these guy’s captain or punching him before the day is through.”

 

Zoro eyed one of the pirates with slight interest (mostly because said pirate carried a katana instead of the usual cutlass or machete that most average pirate swordsman tended to use) and said, “So one of these guys can take me to their leader and that’s where Luffy will be? Makes sense to me.”

 

Before Zoro could make a move to ‘persuade’ one of the pirates to bring him to their boss the two teenage wimps (as dubbed by Zoro’s often ignored subconscious) boldly grabbed hold of Zoro and quietly hissed, “Stop.”

 

Zoro shook the two off easily but Iaana continued to talk, “Don’t start a fight with the pirates in town. That’s one of the rules.”

 

“Rules? Don’t be ridiculous,” Dawn said, “If the pirates just needed a neutral location to relax around then they wouldn’t have armed guards transporting goods to their base. They’ll attack you eventually.”

 

“Only if hotheads like you and that blood red beast keep instigating fights with them,” Geel argued back.

 

Iaana nodded in agreement, “That little brat keeps fighting pirates out on the shore and making pitfall traps at their base. She’s going to get them fed up and they’ll start making examples of people. Everyone knows the pirates went after her dad and killed him because she raised the alarm and tried to bring everyone together to fight them off when they first arrived.”

 

“Yeah, if she keeps picking fights they might go after our parents next. Their captain said anyone who goes out of town is fair game to attack but the town itself is neutral ground.”

 

“I’ve seen people hide from pirates or try to fight them off but I’ve never seen a whole town not even care that pirates have invaded unless there are a lot of marines around. It sounds like the only brave person on this entire island is this ‘blood red beast’ you seem to be mocking, even if she  _ is _ a girl.” Zoro said as he narrowed his eyes at the two young teens, who both seemed to wilt under both his expression and his harsh opinion.

 

On reflex the two began tearing up and began to sniffle which seemed to somehow instantly summon a pair of beautifully dressed women who were wearing eye-catching shades of yellow in order to simultaneously grab Iaana and Geel, hide them behind their bodies and scowl up at Zoro (since they were both petite). Iaana’s ‘rescuer’ had identical features as her son though Geel’s mother had brown hair, blue eyes and a lighter skin complexion than her own son did.

 

As though she were correcting a misbehaving toddler instead of speaking with an adult who openly carried three swords Iaana’s mother scolded, “You big brute. Don’t harass my son before your shift begins. Don’t you know the rules? No pirate activities within town border.”

 

“A pirate with a border?” Dawn muttered incredulously, “I take back what I said. Luffy’s gonna hit their captain within five minutes of meeting him.”

 

Zoro laughed at Dawn’s comment and asked, “Does that mean I can drag one of these pirates outside this town and then make them take me to their base?”

 

Iaana’s mother seemed to be puffing herself up to scold Zoro again but Geel’s mother raised her hand and said, “Wait Safra. This isn’t one of the pirates. I remember reading in the newspaper a few months ago about a famous bounty hunter who carries three swords and wears a green haramaki. You’re the Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro, aren’t you?”

 

Zoro regarded the brunette woman for a moment and said, “Yes I am.”

 

The woman glanced across the courtyard over to where the four pirates were loitering, not paying any attention to the townsfolk, and turned black to Zoro to say, “You should talk to the mayor up at the town hall. A bounty hunter coming into town without documentation breaks the rules so you need to be registered. Please don’t argue. The rules have kept the people living in this town safe for the last six months.”

 

“What about the people who live outside of town?” Dawn spoke up.

 

Safra scoffed and said, “There aren’t anyone else outside of town who matter, right Rumena? Just animals and castaways from the pirate attacks.”

 

“What about the girl these two were talking about? Doesn’t she live outside of town?” Zoro asked.

 

“That ruffian Medaka?” Rumina asked, looking alarmed, “She’s not a local so she doesn’t matter. About ten years ago a man named Herring arrived here and decided to live out on the beach with his daughter. He built a charming little toyshop but it didn’t bring in enough money for him to buy a home here in town.”

 

“All the great families live in town you know. That poor man, he was a widower you see. All the children liked his quaint little shop but that girl of his was always hurting our kids. Some people just aren’t fit to handle uptown life - she was always getting into places she shouldn't be at like the mayor’s office or else she was playing messy pranks in the town shops and was always getting into fights with the boys. She didn’t have a mother to raise her right.”

 

“Oh Safra, you know poor old Herring tried as best he could to reign that girl in but he was just too mild mannered to make any difference. She was just too wild. I heard her mother had been a pirate actually so she must take after her mother.”

 

“Truly? Oh I hadn’t heard that theory, how enticing -”

 

Zoro had at this time realized the two women were just gossiping together and that their son’s had long vanished away and so this time he was successfully able to escape without any further notice. Spotting the four pirates moving to pull the carts full of stuff out of town presumedly to their hideout Zoro grinned a smile that was as about as friendly as a shark’s and followed them. He mentally promised to try to contain himself until he was certain of where the pirate base was located and once that happened no amount of rules would stop him from reuniting with Luffy.

 

“So now I have Zoro! I really want a musician next but Ann wants a navigator and Zoro thinks we need a cook.” Luffy, after he had finished singing a pirate song, had began telling Medaka all about what great adventures he and Dawn had been having since he had set out. (Mostly because Medaka was the first kid younger than him that he had ever met and spent time with. He always had liked hearing Shanks’ stories about his real pirate adventures when he was little so surely a kid younger than him would want to hear his own real pirate adventure stories, right?) and he had just barely started! 

 

Medaka didn’t believe a word of it.

 

“I knew stupid Ganzack’s crew was full of dummies but you’re the most delusional one I’ve ever seen,” Medaka stubbornly said, “I’m not a dumb little kid now - I’m eleven and I know a story when I hear one. Ships don’t talk and sail themselves, giant birds can’t fly, marines wouldn’t execute someone for no reason and chickens don’t lay golden eggs. I hope you’re as strong as you are stupid or we’ll be in trouble soon. We’re here.”

 

Luffy was severely disappointed in seeing his first real pirate base. He had been imagining a cool fort with at least five flags, three times as many cannons and a ship docked out in front. Instead what Medaka had led him to was what appeared to be an old abandoned one story house. There were old barrels empty of their previously held liquor that were littered around the entrance, each labelled with a skull and crossbones which was the only sign of a jolly roger anywhere in sight. Tall beach grass grew up in tufts between house and the shore further away that indeed had a ship anchored off shore. Even though the ship was large and seemed to be plated in metal there wasn’t even a pirate flag flying above it anymore which was practically a sacrilege to Luffy. 

 

Medaka didn’t care about what was above ground, all that was just the top. Never one to waste an opportunity she pulled Luffy into the building and they found themselves walking down into the basement of the house. There was a maze of dirt walled halls each either leading to rooms with locked rooms or else open to pirates who were bustling around with tools of all kinds or armed to the teeth with blades, pistols, muskets and mortars. 

 

Luffy’s nose twitched and he suddenly bolted down a side hall, causing Medaka to follow behind him as she called out, “Wait! Where are you going? We need to find where they’re imprisoning my dad!”

 

“I smell food over here. It might be where they keep their prisoners, right?” Luffy said optimistically.

 

“Food? No way, you’re just hungry and want to find the kitchen don’t you?” Medaka accused.

 

Before Luffy could answer they ran into first a room that was neither a kitchen or a brig but a large room bustling with pirates who were carrying crates of explosives and mortars out to the opening a sea cavern out to where the ship they had seen weighed anchor off shore from a new angle. A man in red armor with shoulder gauntlets that looked like crab claws who looked slightly damp from seawater was directing the crew strictly from where he was standing overseeing their work.

 

“That’s Ganzack,” Medaka said before, with a fierce glare in her eyes, she gripped her spear tightly and ran towards the armored pirate captain with a desperate sounding shout, “Give me back my dad, you stupid pirate!”

 

If Ganzack was at all surprised over being attacked by a kid in his own base he didn't at all show it. Instead of startling or flinching away from the attack Ganzack just turned around and snatched the spear out of Medaka’s hands without a single flinch. As he tossed the spear aside he turned around, looked scornfully down at Medaka and said, “Oh, it's just you again. I warned you last time that I'd take any weapon you used against me didn't I? Someone get this brat out of here and teach her a lesson.”

 

“Give me back my dad! I'll beat you today because I have backup this time!” Medaka shouted as she flung herself away from one of the goons who tried to grab her.

 

“Backup? Who would back you up? Everyone on this island from my men to the townsfolk hates you,” Ganzack said before he noticed Luffy just standing there staring at him intently, “Who the hell are you?”

 

“Me? I’m Monkey D Luffy. I’m helping Medaka with a treasure hunt to find her dad. Your armor looks really tasty, crab-guy.”

 

“That’s the guy, boss! The weirdo she teamed up with! He had magic like you do!” The short pirate from earlier on the beach, Ronnie, accused as he gestured frantically towards Luffy with his tall buddy Aary nodding in agreement behind him.

 

“I’m not magic, I’m rubber,” Luffy denied as he demonstrated by stretching his cheek out two feet to the side of his face and releasing it with a snap causing the gathered pirates around him to clamor in alarm. Medaka was scowling up at him by now and wondered why was he talking so nicely to the people who were holding her dad captive, had she misjudged Luffy?

 

A greedy glint flashed in Ganzack’s eyes and always glad to seize up talent, especially if it ruined children’s dreams he said, “Oh really? You have an interesting ability kid. I’m the Glorious Captain Ganzack and I like to have strong subordinates on my crew. If you become one of my men and work hard you’ll get all the treasure you can collect from permitted areas, a free official crew tattoo and a delicious feast every day. What do you say, young man, want to join my crew?”

 

“No, don’t wanna,” Luffy instantly refused, “I’m gonna be Pirate King so I’m my own captain. I can get my own treasures, my own tattoo and my own food. Not yours crab-guy.”

 

“My name is Ganzack - not crab-guy! Show some respect, Monkey. I’m a powerful wizard, my armor can absorb any attack and I have this!”

 

Ganzack pointed his arm towards Luffy and launched a mortar towards him - it exploded in the air before it reached him and the resulting smoke obscured everyone’s vision in the open air sea cavern. 

 

“Kanininini, now you’re dead you stupid Monkey! You should’ve taken my deal! Now I can finally finish up here on this island and go on to become King of the Pirates myself! Somebody get that armored kid out of here already, she’s annoying me!”

 

Medaka raised her fists defensively, ready to begin another fight for her life but was interrupted when a barrage of rubbery fists exploded from the cloud of smoke, hitting away the pirates who had been rushing towards Medaka.

 

“What the-?” both Medaka and Ganzack were shocked over Luffy’s unscathed survival.

 

“I’m gonna be Pirate King!” Luffy shouted, “Not a crabby pirate like you, crab-guy!”

 

“Don’t call me crab guy, you stupid Monkey!” Ganzack shouted back before ordering, “What are you idiots waiting for? Get that stupid monkey and that brat  _ now _ !”

 

The pirates surged forwards but Luffy didn’t mind at all. He fought his way through the crowd of pirates, knocking them back in all directions with Medaka sticking close behind him hitting her own opponents with strikes hard enough that Luffy could hear the cracking of bones getting fractures! He knew he and his brother’s weren’t ‘abnormally monstrous’ like the bandits and Dawn and Mayor Woop Slap had warned.

 

He made it up to the front of Ganzack before long and launched a strong punch that landed hard against the chest of the man’s armor. He didn’t budge a single inch and instead let out a cackle, ”Kanininini! My armor’s the result of over a decade’s study of magic and a lifetime of science - it won’t be broken from a simple punch!”

 

“No punching your armor? Okay crab-guy,” Luffy said as though he had been given helpful advice from a friend before he swung his fist at Ganzack again and hit him square in the side of his face so hard that he flew into the group of pirates that had been converging on them.’’

 

Ganzack cursed and with gritted teeth slammed his hand down on the floor hard which pressed down on a hidden plate in the ground.

 

A blast of something pink and fluffy like cotton candy but glowing and more viscous shot up out of the ground and wrapped around Luffy and Medaka sticking them still like a bugs trapped in a spider web.

 

“Arguh! Let me go! Fight me! You crab-shell! Let me go!” Luffy shouted.

 

Ganzack cackled and said, “Too bad for you. You may have a witch on your crew but you obviously don’t know how to fight someone with magic traps on their side! I’ve rigged this entire place with nets that can catch anyone who tries to attack me! You’d need strength enough to bend steel in order to get free of my special potion or my counterpotion! Men! We will have a banquet in honor of the completion of my armor and the eve of our voyage to more prosperous waters! Lock this idiot and that little brat in those shackles on the wall of the banquet hall and let’s have a feast!”

 

Within a half an hour the pirate’s party was in full swing with pirates drinking, eating, gambling and having a grand old time with Luffy and Medaka locked up in steel shackles on the far wall of their banquet hall. The potion had worn off by then but Medaka and Luffy were still locked up on the far side of the room, across from where Ganzack was sitting in a chair that was elevated up a foot from the ground as though he were some sort of king holding court. The room was partially lit from the ceiling itself, which had a smooth texture that was softly glowing pink. There were many tables and chairs scattered about filled with pirates, food and drink and Luffy looked on enviously as he watched Ganzack bite into the leg of something red and meaty with obvious relish. 

 

With the party in full swing and Ganzack practically buzzing with excitement (and more intoxicated than he would admit to being) began amusing himself by mocking Luffy, “Kanininini! ‘Look at me I’m a Monkey and I wanna be Pirate King but I’m too stupid to live.’ That’s what you sound like to me! You’re so stupid and so’s that runty brat! Who has the strongest armor? Me, not you with your stupid toy! Who’s the smartest pirate ever who can do magic and fight and am a genius? Me!”

 

“Can’t be that smart if you had to kidnap my dad in order to make anything,” Medaka snarked rudely.

 

“That fool didn’t make anything worthy! It was all me!” Ganzack yelled as he stood up in indignation, “I only needed that fool for my armor! Before that I designed and commissioned my amazing ship myself! Me! Take a look at how amazing it is!”

 

Ganzack slapped the wall behind his chair and a large sheet of paper unrolled from the ceiling down to the floor.

 

“Behold! My ultimate warship! She had a length of 184 feet, a beam of 29 feet, a draught of 6 feet, and can carry over 60 tons. She’s powered by two sixty pound engines and is armed with two pivot-mounted 32-pounder and four 6-pounder guns. Her shallow draught will allow me to travel from the sea and into rivers so no one will be safe from my reach! Kanininini!” Ganzack bragged as he proudly slapped his hand on the schematic.

 

Luffy was unimpressed, “You’re so dumb. That isn’t a ship, that’s just a drawing of a ship, crab-guy.“

 

“Don’t call me crab-guy! This is a schematic of my ship you stupid kid - a picture of my ship.” Ganzack ordered.

 

Luffy wouldn’t have cared if had been a picture of the one piece. He stretched up a finger to pick his nose and rudely said, “Don’t care - your ship isn’t as cool as mine anyway crab-guy. Mine’s alive.”

 

Ganzack stormed over to Luffy and snarled in fury as he got closer, intending to uphold his ego by crushing in Luffy’s face for disrespecting him.

 

“I said to watch how you address me, you brat! There’s no way your ship’s alive! There’s no magic in the world that can give life to the lifeless! It’s me who has the strongest ship in all of history and I am on my way to becoming Pirate King!” Ganzack snarled threateningly as he pinched Luffy’s face in a vice grip and twisted it back and forth trying to shut the rubber pirate up, knocking Luffy’s hat from his head as a result. Then to add insult to injury he looked down at Luffy’s fallen straw hat and stepped on it while he grinded his foot into it.

 

Luffy’s face went so apocalyptic with rage that Medaka reflexively moved as far as she could away from his side out of nervousness. Medaka had never seen a face so angry and angry people could be unpredictable.

 

“THAT’S MY TREASURE! STOP STEPPING ALL OVER IT WITH YOUR DIRTY SHOE!”

 

Ganzack scowled and hissed, “It’s just a dirty old straw hat.”

 

“SHANKS GAVE THAT TO ME! DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH IT ANYMORE!”

 

“Shanks?” Ganzack asked with surprise crossing his face for a moment as he stroked his goatee in contemplation and followed up by asking, “What could a nobody like you have to do with a famous pirate like him?”

 

“NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS YOU JERK!” Luffy shouted back at him, “GIVE ME MY TREASURE BACK!”

 

Ganzack ground his foot harder into the hat and with a mocking laugh spread his arms wide and said, “Why don’t you make me? Men, I’ve decided what we’re going to do with these two pests. This banquet to celebrate my debut to the Grand Line will have the following entertainment: we’re going to have an auction. I want to auction off this hat, this runty little brat and this weakling pirate in that order for the right to destroy them. The hat’s auction starts at a mere 100 beris, doesn’t that sound like a good time? Kanininini!”

 

The crowd of pirates roared out their approval over their captain’s bloodthirsty plan.

 

“I’m gonna use all my savings and shove a spear down that armored brat’s throat,” Ronny from the beach conspired to his buddy Arry with a wickedly enthusiastic chuckle, “Pool in with me, would’ ya?”

 

Before Arry could agree or refuse Ronny’s request the four pirates on delivery duty came into the banquet hall in an unconscious heap, silencing the entire room so that a single comment could be heard throughout the entire hall.

 

“Is saving each other from executions going to be a thing we do on every island on this crew?”

 

Everyone turned their attention over to Zoro who, with Dawn’s lure still perched on his head, had already taken care of the pirates he had followed from the town into pirate base. He had been listening to the crab armored pirate captain for only a minute or so but enough was enough. 

 

“What’s everyone standing around for - get him!” Ganzack ordered, sending his men into action.

 

While everyone’s attention was drawn away from them Medaka took the chance to swiftly-but-carefully snatch Luffy’s hat up from the floor with her feet and pulled the skull-and-crossbones hatpin that had been stuck in its ribbon out free. 

 

Luffy watched Medaka with interest as she stuck the sharp end of the pin into the lock of his cuffed hands and said, “Don’t you want want out first?”

 

“I would, but you’re my only chance to get out of this alive, so you’d better not lose again.” Medaka scolded and glared at him as he began to pull at the cuff, “Will you stay still already so I can get you out?”

 

“Yeah, like this?” Luffy asked as he slid his wrists free from the cuffs and handed them back to Medaka who looked frustrated at his actions.

 

“Could you have freed yourself from these whenever you wanted?” she asked trying to decide whether she wanted to stab him with the hatpin or not.

 

“Only when I felt like it. I’m gonna hit Ganzack three times for each time he stepped on my hat!” Luffy declared and flung himself into the fight against the masses of pirates. 

 

Ganzack quickly moved so the majority of his crew were now between Luffy and himself and made a new order, “Stop! The one who brings me that Monkey brat’s head will be given 100 kilos in gold! Fight! Kill! Win!”

 

The pirates roared out their approval and attacked Luffy with a gold lusting frenzied free for all, pissing Luffy off since all he wanted to do was punch Ganzack in the face! 

 

Medaka made short work of removing the cuff from herself with the hatpin and once she was free stuck the pin back in the straw hat still left in her hands and pushed the hat snug between herself and the chestplate of the armor she was wearing in order to keep it safe. Once she finished storing Luffy’s treasure safely away she glared at the melee and went in to fight.

 

Most of the pirates were attacking Luffy, though a few were forced to engage in combat with Zoro and then Medaka simply for the reason that the two were attacking the pirates anyway.

 

Since her spear had already been taken from her by Ganzack she ran over to where a pirate laid unconscious on the floor, picked up his sword and ran into the fight with an energetic battle cry as her visor fell over her eyes. Somehow she found herself fighting in the same area as Luffy’s green haired crewmate. Considering there was a lack of specific details in Luffy’s stories from on their way to Ganzack’s base she assumed that it was Zoro instead of Ann, all things considered.

 

“It that guy really your captain?” She called out as she ducked benieth the swing of a taller pirate’s sword and slashed at him with her own, causing him to stumble backwards directly in the range of Zoro’s own attack.

 

“Luffy? Yeah he’s the captain. There aren’t many of us: there’s a blue girl, a few birds, a ship and me. Do you even know how to use a sword?” Zoro asked as he watched Medaka gracelessly swinging her pilfered katana around without a single ounce of skill, mostly in a ‘swing-swing-stab’ kind of motion most kids used when they were play fighting each other with sticks.

 

“Yes. The sharp end gets pointed at the other guy.” Medaka said confidently and swung her arm out again at another pirate.

 

“No. I’m going to save us from having to arrange a funeral,” Zoro said as he disarmed the reckless girl easily and shooed her towards a downed pirate who had a loaded pair of pistols instead. At least that would be safer.

 

She adapted quickly to the new method of fighting and began firing at, and disabling pirates at a rapid rate. Zoro was almost taken aback when the girl lifted and tossed one of the heavy wooden chairs with ease towards a fleeing pair of fat-and-thin pirates and knocked them flat. Strong for a kid? Noted. Girl? Noted. This must be the kid the boys from town were so terrified of. She was shorter than he thought she would be.

 

Zoro fought his way over to Luffy’s side since Medaka seemed to be handling herself pretty well and watching Luffy bite into a leg of meat that had been discarded with one hand and hit another goon with another said, “So is this some sort of working lunch?”

 

“Zoro! This jerk Ganzack ate meat right in front of me and stepped on my hat! I have dibs on fighting him!” Luffy said crossly, completely worked up into a rage.

 

“Dibs? What’s dibs?” Zoro asked in confusion.

 

“It’s a word Dawnie made up. It means I go first! Dibs on a place to sleep, dibs on eating meat, dibs on punching stupid jerks in their stupid faces!” Luffy shouted the last bit, sweeping his leg through the room, which Zoro skillfully jumped over while the rest of the people in the room were knocked off their feet. (As she stood back up Medaka took the time to shout, “Warn me next time, you idiot!”)

 

“I didn’t make it up, I just know it’s a real word somewhere,” Dawn said defensively. Some words seemed to translate from what she wanted to say and what people understood and some…just didn’t sound right”

 

“Where did Ann go? Do you know, Zoro?” Luffy asked.

 

“Maybe she’s helping her bird fight the sea monster that was attacking them from somewhere Dawn can’t see,” Zoro suggested.

 

“Really!? How cool! I call dibs to fight the next sea monster!” Luffy demanded as he punched out another couple of goons. 

 

“You don’t have time to be distracting each other you fools. Unless you want me to crush this little crab-cake’s throat,” Ganzack’s voice interrupted from his elevated platform. Luffy and Zoro gritted their teeth when they realized he had his arm outstretched with many strands of weird pink glowing ribbons shooting out of his glove, now tangled up all around Medaka’s armor. 

 

Medaka stopped her struggling at his comment and said, “What did you call me?”

 

“Oh? That was your father’s nickname for you wasn’t it, little crab-cake? The whole crab aesthetic disturbs me but with his scientific knowledge I finally have this greatest armor that combines the best of both offense and defense in both technology and magic. Your father’s greatest use in this world was in coming back to me. With science and magic united together I can be the best version of me. These two fools will soon be crushed just like that witch and her bird was by Plesiosaurus! Kanininini!”

 

Ann wasn’t still fighting Ganzack’s sea monster actually. She had, in the end, been forced with the necessity of leaving Balloon behind for him to deal with the sea monster once they reached the shore of the hidden island.  While she followed her magical trail he valiantly decided to stay behind in order to fight and distract Plesiosaurus the Leviathan away from raising the alarm to his partner. Following the feather dust sparrow past the shore it took a somewhat zigzagged path which eventually lead her to what seemed to be the black magic using pirate’s base. More importantly it lead to what looked to be a combination of a metal workshop and potions lab. It was extremely cluttered and trying to find answers would be a chore but she needed to find the pirate's name or his primary magical focus or she would be forced to use up more magical energy than she could spare in order to continue to break his spells. 

 

The trail finally lead her to the corner of the room where an old journal had been negligently tossed away. It was much more worn than the leather journals that were stacked on the desk in the center of the room and Ann quickly flipped through it only to find it looked to be a personal journal/scientific log of sorts. The entry dates stopped a little over eleven years ago. She sped through reading it and found that it chronicled the progress of a scientist voyager by the name of Ganzack Herring who had discovered and begun to study magic. This had to be the pirate her crew was now facing.

 

It seemed that Ganzack had simply been studying the nature of magic when he received news that his wife was pregnant and became aware that he suddenly had developed slight magical energy at the same time. He already knew from his studies that mages were somewhat rare and coveted for their power. Magic seemed to manifest randomly among any race and age without any obvious rhyme or reason. Among the people who could use magic some could use it better than others though it wasn’t clear how or why. Each mage had their own ‘style’ of performing magic with only a few distinct, named "spells," or “potions” that were readily available to any of them. Mages had to craft their own style of magic that would suit them best. 

 

Seeing the possibilities Ganzack decided he was going to create the ultimate protection spell - one that could perfectly protect his child from everything evil in the world. On January 14th his wife gave birth to a daughter who she named Medaka before passing away right after and Ganzack decided it was time to perform his first ‘perfect’ self-crafted spell.

 

Ann winced and wished someone had told Ganzack that trying to ‘perfectly’ do anything with magic made it much more prone to backfiring, which could mean that he had been hit by his own spell in addition to having an assumed beneficial spell go very badly wrong. There was a potion recipe that included not only magical ingredients but also a spoken spell, a soul vow and a blood ritual. 

 

_ 1511, JAN 15 _

_ 11:56 pm.  _

_ I have started this alone... and I must finish it alone.  _

_ There is no longer a choice... I know that I must use  _

_ myself as the subject of the spell. There is no  _

_ choice! I must put aside the fears I feel inside.  _

_ There's no place to hide from those devils in CP9  _

_ who are sure to come for me. One last final chance  _

_ that only I can take now everything I've fought for  _

_ is at stake! Like a warning light, glimmering in red,  _

_ beautiful and strange. I see the colours change  _

_ before my eyes! They dance and they sparkle like  _

_ diamonds at night leading out of the darkness and  _

_ into the light! _

 

_ 11:58 pm _

_ I consumed 10 centiliters of Potion HJ #1. It has a  _

_ salty, bitter taste. Stings on the tongue. _

_ Warm in the gullet. Heat is spreading strongly  _

_ through my veins. I have a slight feeling of euphoria. _

_ Lightheadedness. No noticeable behavioral  _

_ differences. I must be diligent. I must try to analyze  _

_ each change. This is all for her I must do all I can to  _

_ protect her from everything I’ve seen. Now the die  _

_ is cast - nothing left to do but wait. _

 

_ 11:59 _

_ My God! - What's this? _

_ Something is happening - I can't explain it- _

_ Something’s inside me, a breathtaking pain, _

_ It’s splitting and destroying me _

_ The pain is enough to drive me insane  _

_ Suddenly - uncontrolled - _

_ Something is tearing free _

_ Suddenly - agony - _

_ Filling me - killing me? _

_ Suddenly - out of breath - _

_ What is this - is this death? _

_ Suddenly - look at me! _

_ Can it be? _

_ Who is this creature that I see? _

 

The paper had been speckled with brownish stains that Ann was nearly positive was blood. In the last entry of the journal the penmanship and orderly handwriting suddenly changed to a larger size with letters that seemed more jagged with thicker lines, as though more pressure was being used on the pen with only a single word written beneath the date.

 

_ 1511, JAN 16 _

**_Free_ **

 

Well that certainly was ominous. With a pinch of remaining feather dust she focused and tried to find anything more recent and was lead to a bundle of clothing wrapped around another journal. This one was written simply by ‘Herring’ and she read what happened that night when he took his homebrewed potion. The potion had been meant to keep his daughter protected perfectly from evil for ten years but instead of the desired outcome he had been split into two different halves. The “merciless pirate wizard” Ganzack and the “protective brilliant scientist” Herring. 

 

Herring, upon seeing the danger his Ganzack half would cause his daughter, kidnapped her away from himself and ran away to a randomly selected island in order to keep her safe. The protection of the spell actually seemed to work to Herring’s delight, who had taken to living as an eccentric toymaker for the island very well. Nothing physical seemed to harm his daughter and she was strong enough to wear the densest of metals effortlessly and never had a scrape or injury when she played rough with her friends from the nearby town. 

 

Unfortunately after ten years the protective spell had finally begun to unravel making his daughter vulnerable again. To make matters worse Ganzack, Herring’s “evil half”, was finally able to sense his “good half” and came looking for him in order to gain Herring’s scientific knowledge in order to increase his power to its full potential once again and after six months eventually found him.

 

When Ganzack arrived on the island he captured his scientist half and through a rather horrifying self crafted ritual Ganzack consumed the heart of his good half Herring in order to reabsorb his skills and knowledge back into himself. Herring, having focused for the last decade on science instead of magic, and being made up of the feelings more than the actions of the whole Herring Ganzack, was unable to defend himself from the ritual.  After it was completed Ganzack had all of Herring’s skills and memories but none of Herring’s love or empathy. The only thing Herring think of to do was include a final entry in his journal that would act as an apology to his daughter for not being strong enough to fight his evil half. He hoped that Medaka would be able to escape Herring’s attention and live well.

 

Ann was trying not to cry but the entire tragedy was eating her up. Ganzack was cruel not only to himself but to his own daughter as well. This girl, Medaka, needed to at least be told that her father Herring was gone now, didn’t she? She wondered if she should tell the girl that Ganzack was now the only aspect of her father. 

 

Ganzack who, now that she looked closer at his notes (having regained his note taking habit from Herring), had documented that over the previous six months that he had been building a single incredible battlesuit that would combine both his new scientific ingenuity and magical power. 

 

His desire to set sail to take on the Grand Line and be pirate king definitely set him at odds with Luffy and if Ann were the type to gamble she would place anything she had on the fact that Luffy would eventually fight with Ganzack, if he wasn’t already in the middle of doing so. The sound of a crash and the clamour of fighting jolted Ann into action again. Once she got to where the fight was she would find her crew.

 

She grabbed one of Balloon’s feathers and as she exited the room nearly ran into the sword of a battle frenzied pirate. She knocked him out by imbuing the feather with a short term sleeping spell (three seconds at most in a fight, half an hour at the most if she wanted an instant nap) that was her most useful single word spell (it was the spell that allowed her to get the upper hand in her fight with Spiel’s old bosun after all) and while he was frozen in place hit him over the head with the pommel of his own sword. 

 

By the time she reached the pirate’s banquet hall the sound of fighting had come to a stop. 

 

It appeared to be a stand off with between Luffy and Ganzack with Luffy who obviously wanted to rush at Ganzack but the pirate tech mage apparently had a hostage - a little kid dressed up in armor.

 

It instantly clicked in her head that the kid was Medaka. She was closer to Ganzack than she was to Luffy and so with a somewhat reckless charge Ann rushed over to the girl and with a single swift movement severed the pink magic ribbon with her feather-knife. One magic substance to cancel out the other, otherwise the ribbons as thin as they were thanks to magic would be as strong as iron.

 

“You’re a reliable one, aren’t you? Good. Let’s go Luffy,” Zoro said and raised up his swords again. He grudgingly mentally commended Ganzack’s men for their grit in not running away yet.

 

“Cool! Great job saving Medaka, Ann! We’ll take care of this now!” Luffy said, agreeing with Zoro’s statement and ignored the crew, focusing his attention completely at Ganzack who was still staring at his cut ribbon with a mixture of shock and anger.

 

“You’re Medaka, right? You need to get out of here before you get hurt,” Ann said to the girl, who seemed to be shocked silent for some reason.

 

“Ganzack has my dad though. I need to save my dad.” Medaka said stubbornly.

 

“That man killed your dad. He’s a mage and he used your dad in a ritual to get his scientific knowledge,” Ann said, not wanting to get into the specifics of splitting and recombining people at this moment, and had to grab Medaka and pull her away as Ganzack open fired a gun from his crab claw shoulder gauntlet in their direction.

 

“You’re a soft touch for a witch,” Ganzack growled, “That little crab-cake is stupider than I thought if she hasn’t figured out by now that the man she considers her father will never return!”

 

“Shut up, stupid Ganzack!” Medaka screamed, “You don’t know that! My dad loves me! He’s the only person I have who loves me!”

 

Ganzack smiled wickedly and without a shred of remorse said, “Not anymore. Didn’t you know? Didn’t your so named ‘dad’ ever tell you your true origin? I  _ am _ your father and I  _ ate _ the heart of your dad. Maybe if you prove you can be as ruthless as I am I’ll let you join my crew as a chore girl. If you destroy the hat of that pirate brat that you’ve been holding onto I’ll allow it as your initiation into my crew as an official pirate.”

 

Ganzack continued to mock Medaka, who had frozen completely at his revelation, by saying, “I can fix stupid and weak but someone as gutless has no place in my crew. What do you say, little crab-cake, want to sail the seas with your dear ol’ dad?”

 

Medaka burst into angry tears and pulled the straw hat out from her armor. 

 

She looked at it with fierce eyes for only a second before she threw the hat like a discus directly towards Luffy as she shouted, “I won’t destroy Luffy’s treasure! You can’t make me! You killed my real dad! I’ll  _ never _ forgive you!” 

 

Ganzack laughed meanly and said, “Too bad, I guess I’ll have to eat your heart just like I ate his! Kanininini!”

 

There was a loud smack and crack as Ganzack stopped laughing in order to stem the blood coming from his broken nose courtesy of Luffy who, though he now had his precious straw hat back on his head, looked apocalyptically angry.

 

“Luffy! That’s Medaka’s father,” Ann shouted trying not to feel shocked over his actions while Luffy raged.

 

“I don’t care! A bastard’s still a bastard!” Luffy angrily shouted as he raised his fist in to attack Ganzack again, hating the man for stealing his friend Medaka’s father’s life and the fact that he continued to mock Medaka’s hopes and dreams.

 

Ganzack twisted the knife further and viciously ignored Luffy in order to revel in the glee of making Medaka feel more miserable, “Didn’t you wonder how you could get away with attacking my men so many times without any true retaliation? I could have burned down that little stupid shack you live in at any point or killed you myself but I thought you might have potential to be my subordinate. I can’t believe you ever thought someone like you could make it as a pirate! I need someone ruthless and skilled in either magic, science or fighting but you fail in all areas! You can stay on this island and die for all I care, I’ll never want to have you as my daughter - Kanininini!”

 

Medaka turned away from the room and ran away, escaping from the banquet hall door that Ann had entered through while Ganzack continued to laugh.

 

Ganzack should’ve seen it coming but Luffy’s fist hit him square in the face again - knocking him so hard his ears started ringing and with a snarl of fury Ganzack decided he was completely fed up with the witch, the swordsman and  _ that monkey! _

 

“I’ve had  _ enough of this! _ ” Ganzack shouted and raised his arm up over his head and with a loud bang fired his gauntlet rifle up into the pink, glowing ceiling which shattered and instantly fell, flooding the room with the viscous pink potion he was so proud to be the creator of. Everyone was stuck fast to the ground - including Ganzack and his men who called out to him in confusion.

 

Ganzack, of course, ignored their distress and freed himself rather easily with a counter-potion before he went around and freed anyone he deemed worthy (ruthlessly dispatching any of his subordinates who were knocked out or severely injured himself with shots from his battle suit). 

 

He left Luffy, Zoro and Ann stuck to the ground and instead of killing them where they stood Ganzack faced his men to make another announcement, “Now men. You’ve seen how weak and wealthy the people of this island are - able to fund us nearly effortlessly with tributes of food, supplies and gold every day for the last six months that we’ve been stopped here but today it all ends. I am lifting the border rules for the town as of right now - while I prepare my ship to leave this place you get to go into town and loot and take anything you’ve desired and then kill and burn the rest of it into ashes! We’ll leave these fools here to starve and wither away in this cavern forever!”

 

His crew roared out their excitement and left en masse with Ganzack leading the way in assumed triumph. Ganzack didn’t question why he had mentally dismissed the three young pirates as a threat when he already knew one was a witch, one had already hit him hard enough to break his nose and the last was notorious for being a pirate hunter. (He was especially unaware that in the most hidden part of his subconscious, thanks to his misunderstanding of the very nature of protection magic, the last remaining shred of what had once been Herring was furious over Ganzack breaking their vow to protect their daughter and would for the rest of his life be doing its very best to self-sabotage Ganzack’s grand plans in revenge for making Medaka cry.)

 

Ann watched a bit conflicted as Luffy stretched his neck far enough out that he was now biting the edge of the door frame that Ganzack and his remaining living crew had exited while Zoro was looking between his legs and the two swords in his hands in a manner that immediately made Ann remember he probably would’ve broken his arms to escape death less than two weeks ago.

 

Her hands were currently stuck and she had dropped Balloon’s feather anyway so the only way out of this mess of a potion would be a verbal spell and that meant she needed to let her captain (and Zoro since he was in the same room) know that she was an evil magic user like Ganzack was and Spiel had been. It was time to face the music...

“Luffy? I can get us out of this but before I do I need to let you know something. I’m a black magic user just like Ganzack is and like Spiel was. I’m sorry I’ve kept it from you,” Ann ducked her head in shame and continued, “I can use a spell to get us out of this and then after we resolve things here I’ll accept your decision regarding what to do with me.”

 

“Magic? Magic! Do a spell - do a spell!” Ann lifted her head again in order to stare in shock over Luffy, who had stars in his eyes due to his excitement as he wiggled about enthusiastically. He sounded thrilled and excited, which was typical of him, and yet somehow not a reaction that Ann had been expecting.

 

“What are you waiting for then? If you have a way to get us free do it.” Zoro was a surprise too, only in the fact that he didn’t care about her reveal unless it was useful for their escape.

 

Ann nodded at their word, now wasn’t the time to just talk, she needed to act. With a commanding tone of voice she spoke, “Feathers free us without tearing - this potion brew-ed up by Herring - So captain, swordsman, witch pay back - against that bastard jerk Ganzack!”

 

Luffy shishishi-ed with delight when the pink glowing goop transformed nearly instantly from its steel-glue state into about a million pink feathers instead, making the room look like the molting grounds for a six-generational flock of flamingos.

 

Zoro snorted and with a short but gut deep laugh said, “I never thought cursing people and cursing went together so well.”

 

“What’s with all the feathers?” Dawn asked as her lure gobbled up one of the pink feathers as a snack.

 

“I specialize in bird magic,” Ann admitted a bit self deprecatingly, “it isn’t very useful in a fight, I know. I can only really use other kinds of magic with Balloon’s help.”

 

“Seems useful to me,” Dawn said as she gulped down another feather, “Shouldn’t we be going after that ‘bastard jerk Ganzack’?”

 

At Dawn’s reminder of his goal of punching Ganzack’s face again Luffy let out a challenging roar and ran out of the room in the direction of his opponent with Zoro and Ann at his heels right behind him. Enough tricks, Ganzack and his crew were going  _ down _ .

 

Like a plague Ganzack and his men were surging up along the shore road certain of their coming victory when just when they were coming up to the entrance of the town the straw hat pirates closed the gap.

 

Iaana and Geel, who had been loitering around just outside the town, gaped in terrified awe at the resulting clash. Luffy, with his long stretchy limbs was grabbing and bodily flinking people into trees a hundred meters off. Zoro, the boy’s living embodiment of a terrifying beast (green male version) was using two swords, still in their sheaths (hand-hand) to take out people and two chains (leg-leg) to catch and pull mooks closer into his attacking range. Scariest of all was Ann who, to their view, was stunning pirates with just one hand (holding a magic feather) and giving them devastatingly accurate knee strikes to unpleasant parts, leaving a trail of bodies, crouched over on absolute misery. 

 

The boss pirate Ganzack, dressed for some reason in armor that made him look like a human-crab, broke free of the battle and pressed something on the gauntlet on his arm that seemed to make the world explode.

 

It was actually just an overpowered mortar but none of the pirate attacks had ever happened so near to the town before. The blast was enough to shatter the windows of the homes at the edge of the town border. During the aftermath of the explosion Ganzack charged into town, nearly frothing at the mouth in his fury with a dozen of his remaining men following right behind him. The straw hats weren’t far behind and didn’t intend to let them get away that easily.

 

No one had spared a single glance at Iaana or Geel who, standing with their paint brushes and had been waiting for the expected retaliation of the blood red beast from their actions in ‘decorating’ her house that morning. 

 

“You don’t think one of those pirates could’ve gotten the drop on her finally?” Geel asked Iaana as he watched the invading pirates with worry in his voice.

 

“No way, don’t even joke about that. She’s the scariest thing of all, right?” Iaana sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

 

As much as Iaana and Geel were as terrified of Medaka as all the other kids on the island were (from three to fifteen, boys and girls alike) they were also the only two who still deliberately went out of their way to instigate reactions from her instead of trying to avoid her wrath. This caused every other kid to believe the two were simultaneously the bravest and the stupidest amongst the town kids.

 

When the two spotted a flash of armor running up the path they instantly forgot their worries and jumped to their attack positions with their paint soaked brushes outstretched and in usion shouted, “Paint the beast!”

 

Medaka’s reaction and retaliation was instantaneous. She lifted both of them by the back of their necks, shook them twice like ragdolls and slammed them into the ground with ease and shouted furiously, “I  _ don’t _ have time for this! Either get out of town or get killed by pirates for all I care but you’d better  _ stay outta my way! _ ”

 

She ran off into town a moment later, leaving the two laying in the street and stunned into silence.

 

“Iaana?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Tigers are scary, right?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“And pirates are scary?”

 

“...Yeah”

 

“And Medaka?”

 

“Still the scariest.”

 

“Yep, definitely.”

 

While in town Ganzack had split up from the rest of his forces and run to the dock at the front of the town. His ship had an engen and thanks to his technology it could be controlled from his armor. He had thought he had taken enough time in arriving to the town for the ship to have moved from his base to the dock out in front of the town but it was still coming in from the sea to dock. Those pirate kids (that stupid Monkey!) were making his plan fall to pieces but he could escape, bind a crew by magic to him again, and form a plan of taking his revenge later. He let out a piercing whistle to call for his pet but there was no sign of it. He gritted his teeth and dove into the water swimming as quickly as he could out to his ship.

 

Within the town Ganzack’s men, unaware that they had already been left behind by their captain, were breaking the windows of businesses, tearing the jewels and silks off of the women they encountered in the streets and roughed up the men just for fun. The townsfolk, under enchantment thanks to Ganzack’s barrier, just seemed more confused than scared over their actions.

 

“No pirate activities in town you know, that’s the rule,” A woman said as her jewelry was stolen from her.

 

“We’ll report this to the mayor you know,” a grocer warned after the window in front of his shop was shattered.  

 

“Well I never. I’ll be forced to get physical if you keep this up young man,” a gentleman scolded a pirate who had slashed his arm with a cutlass, even as he pressed a handkerchief to the wound in order to stem the blood a little.

 

“Second Sleep!” Ann ran up behind the pirate and slashed him with the feather in her hand, causing him to wobble for a moment giving her room to swiftly perform a remorseless knee strike that dropped him to his knees, groaning in agony before she roundhouse kicked him in the side of his head, knocking him out.

 

“I thought you only did bird magic.” Zoro commented accusingly, having watched Ann in action using a feather of all things.

 

“Yes. Feathers are on birds, right? A feather soft pillow will put someone right to sleep so I figured when I was seven that feathers would be great for charming people to sleep. It’s hard to explain - my magic needs to be bird based but there is enough flexibility in that a lot of magic has to do with feelings and feathers feel like sleep so it’s still bird based.” Ann explained.

 

The last six pirates ransacking the town seemed to have been trying to attack the mayor just outside the town hall when Ann and Zoro came across them. 

 

Spotting them first Zoro called out, “Dibs on these guys!” before rushing over to face them.

 

(“What the heck are dibs!?” Ann called out as she watched causing Dawn, who was fluttering over her head to laugh.)

 

Zoro used the chains around his legs to sweep up and launch the six pirates into the air before he jumped up and spun 360 degrees with two swords in hand and attacked the pirates mercilessly as he shouted, “Night Air Bird!” 

 

The pirates hit the ground and Zoro landed on his feet. “How about that, birds in a fight are useful after all.” Zoro joked causing Dawn to chirp out a laugh.

 

Ann gave Zoro a deadpan stare and said, “That joke isn’t funny.”

 

“But it is punny,” Dawn interjected before Zoro and Ann were besieged from all sides by confused and questioning townsfolk.

 

“Why are these people so weird? Is it a magic thing?” Zoro asked in irritation as the idiotic mom duo he had encountered earlier were pestering him to register as a bounty hunter with the mayor again.

 

“It’s the barrier. Ganzack mentioned that one of its uses was to pacify the people on this island.” Ann explained.

 

“That doesn’t explain why that kid was so aggressive though. She kept attacking pirates didn’t she? After six months, wouldn’t she be all carefree and stupid like these people are?”

 

“Why were you fighting? It’s against the rules to fight in town,” the mayor said, continuing to fret.

 

Ann snapped, “Will you shut up about these rules!? We’re trying to help so you idiots don’t get killed!”

 

“Yeah this town is weird about rules,” Zoro said, “Seems a boring place to live if you’re not allowed to fight anywhere in town.”

 

Ann snapped her fingers and said, “So that means that this must be the center. A barrier is strongest at its edge and in its centermost point. If this is a dome then… right above the fountain should be the center. Wait here. Balloon and I will break it.”

 

Zoro watched as Ann let out a shrill whistle, calling Balloon to her side in an instant magically. He squawked angrily at her since he had been pulled away from the long battle he had just been about to win against the sea monster, but forgave her when she explained what they needed to accomplish together.

 

Luffy was running around town back and forth, searching for Ganzack amongst all the attacking pirates but couldn’t find him anywhere. Zoro and Ann in the meantime were working to stop Ganzack’s men as they came across them finding that they weren’t very tough but just a tenacious group instead. 

 

Luffy had finally run all the way through town and found himself on the dock. Ganzack’s ship was off shore in the distance and was making its way out to the open sea, its engines audible even from the dock. Luffy spotted Ganzack’s distinct crab-like silhouette on the deck and gritted his teeth in frustration, the crab-guy was leaving! He needed to hit him again!

 

Luffy stretched his arm far out to the sea and grabbed the rail of Ganzack's ship, intending to fight out on his ship before Ganzack could try to run away. As soon as he began sling shooting his way over though he felt someone grab onto the back of his legs in order to go along with him. A brief glance back by him only to see Medaka. The expression on her face was clearly ready for confrontation and had him grin despite the serious circumstances.

 

As soon as they landed on deck and got their footing Medaka was on her feet rushing towards Ganzack while simultaneously drawing out one of her pistols as she shouted, “You’re going to pay for eating my dad, you evil pirate!”

 

She was yanked back suddenly by Luffy who pulled her back to stand behind him as he yelled, “I don’t think so. I’m gonna beat him first and then you can shoot him if you still want to.”

 

Ganzack laughed again and said, “Go ahead and try it, you stupid Monkey brat. You failed before and you’ll fail again!” He jumped up to the main deck up to the quarterdeck of his ship with Luffy right behind him a split second later.

 

“Take this!” the legs of Ganzack’s armor began shooting out electrified pellets, blazing hot fire blasts, explosive mortars and regular bullets but Luffy took all the ammunition he had and bounced it back causing severe damage to the mast and sails in the process.

 

“Rubber High Caliber Pistol!” Luffy swung his fist with all his might at Ganzack and managed to hit Ganzack in the face.

 

Ganzack wiped a bit of blood and saliva from his mouth and used the claws of his armor to block a second hit while he momentarily recovered. 

 

Then with a twist of his arm a bright pink thread shot out from one of the openings of his armor and wrapped tightly around Luffy, preventing him from moving. The crab like claws on his armor changed from blunt edged to as sharp as one of Zoro’s swords and Ganzack said, “I’ll slice you into mincemeat and throw your remains overboard. No one can help you now!”

 

Medaka gritted her teeth from where she had been waiting and made her move. 

 

“Goodbye!” Ganzack swung his claw right at Luffy’s exposed neck - intending to take his head and his stupid hat. There was a sudden scurry and Luffy could do nothing but gape when Medaka jumped in front of him to take the hit.

 

There was a sickening screech of metal on metal and Medaka hit the deck ten feet away from him while the helmet rolled another five feet. Something red pooled in front of the armor and Medaka didn’t get back up.

 

Luffy felt something weird in his body as he watched this happen while still bound up. It felt like he couldn’t hear too good any more. It felt like time was sticking to itself and moving too slowly. His next heartbeat felt like it stung a little. Shanks had lost his arm and saved his life ten years ago - was he really so weak that he needed another red haired savior to lose their life in order to help him?

 

“Oh? What a shame. I don’t understand how she could’ve been important to Herring in the first place. She only ever caused problems and was always tracking sand into the house. Even in her death she’s giving me a mess to clean up.” There was no remorse in his voice. Just spite.

 

Something hot and angry bubbled into Luffy’s blood and with a blisteringly furious glare he didn’t even speak for once. He hunched over and strained himself harder than he ever had done since his journey began and began to stretch.

 

The pink glowing ribbon, sticky and unbreakable, bulged out from his sides as he inhaled - and kept inhaling. The light of the thread began to flicker.

 

With a sound that might have been a roar he pushed out his arms and the threads snapped like they had been nothing but cooked spaghetti noodles.

 

“How dare you mock her! Bastard! Rubber Mallet!” 

 

Luffy stretched out his arms while twisting them, and grabbed Ganzack by his throat. Ganzack had just enough time to regret running his mouth before Luffy lifted him up into the air and then untwisted his arms, rapidly spinning Ganzack, before crashing him hard into to the deck of his ship. 

 

Ganzack’s leg twitched once and then became still as Luffy took deep breaths in order to try to calm his inflamed emotions more. He regretted that the fight had been over so soon because he still wanted to hit Ganzack again. The sound of clapping however caused him to turn his head.

 

Medaka, now standing with the helmet knocked off from her shoulders, was enthusiastically applauding Luffy’s work. The armor had been a little big for her so she had very fortunately only lost the helmet and not her head along with it. Her red hair was shiny, a little bit curly and fluttering a bit in the sea wind.

 

“You did it, Captain Luffy! You’re amazing!” Medaka said with a bright and excited smile.

 

Luffy was at first stunned but she was alive and that was what mattered right? Luffy smiled back at her and nodded.

 

There was a distant roar and the ship shook causing both Luffy and Medaka to stumble a bit before they watched in awe at the sky shatter and fall away above them. The ship shook again and there was another, closer roar as an extremely cut up and beat up sea monster lifted its head out of the water and hissed angrily at Luffy and Medaka.

 

Luffy, just as calm as the shore prior to a tsunami, spoke candidly to the sea monster, “If you’re like Balloon you can understand me. You’re going to take this ship, this crew and this jerk to the furthest place away from this island as you can get get or else I’ll eat you.”

 

The sea monster gulped sensing the Truth packed in Luffy’s words. It would do as this person requested.

 

Up in the sky Ann took a feather as a focus and using all of the power she had remaining pouring into it she said, “Turn this barrier back into the sea, absorb it into the rocks and into the trees, send this barrier far away from me. With my familiar in support of me - Make it Be.”

 

She pointed the feather into the air and a spear of black-and-white light shot up into the sky above themselves and the island. An instant later, there was a blinding flash, like sheet-lightning, and a huge wall of black and white flames branched out from where the lance touched the sky and spread rapidly outwards and down into the sea, leaving a ring of smoke to float more slowly after it. What looked like cracks in glass spread over the sky and shattered away without a trace.

 

The barrier had been huge and had been built over the course of six months, getting stronger each day and even with Balloon’s support Ann felt darkness encroaching at the edges of her vision. Balloon only had time for a quick landing before both he and Ann passed out in the middle of town. Zoro was quick to stand guard over their fallen forms as the townsfolk cautiously approached them and came back to their senses.

 

“Is Ganzack…?” The first few seemed a bit confused.

 

“What’s going on? Why do I feel so...odd?” They looked like people waking up suddenly in the middle of sleepwalking.

 

“Pirates! We were attacked by pirates!” A voice called out and suddenly people were rushing about checking on each other.

 

“Pirates! There are pirates laying around everywhere in town and out of town! Tie them up! Tie them up quick before they recover!”

 

“Someone call the marines! There’s so many pirates! Wait - these folks are the ones who knocked them out!”

 

“It’s Roronoa Zoro! His bounty hunter gang saved us!” the mayor said, sounding excited.

 

“Sorry, you’re mistaken,” Zoro said as he shook his head, “I never called myself a bounty hunter, it was just something I did in order to get food to eat while focusing on my true goal. Oh and I don’t have a bounty hunting gang. I’m a pirate. My captain stopped our ship outside this island to go fishing and Ganzack attacked us.”

 

“We were saved from pirates by other pirates…?” the mayor seemed baffled and rubbed the top of his head in confusion, “This sounds like a story that ruffian Medaka would enjoy. Well regardless of the circumstances you have my thanks.”

 

After Ganzack’s men were gathered up and taken to their ship which was then pulled along by a sea monster the people in town were quick to clean up and begin a party commissioned by the mayor to celebrate and thank the Straw Hats for getting rid of Ganzack and his men as well as for Medaka, who had helped in her own way all alone for months. Right before the party began the mayor pulled Medaka aside and apologized to her for how his grandsons acted towards her.

 

“I’m sorry you had to go so long without help from us. You weren’t born here but I’m glad Herring and you made this place your home.”

 

“He kidnapped me away from Ganzack when I was a baby,” Medaka confessed, startling the mayor, “That’s why Ganzack came after my...dad. I don’t consider Ganzack my father though. I’ll be a toymaker like my dad was and build only nice things - I promise. Just don’t make me live alone anymore, please.”

 

The mayor was silent for a while before he said, “Well I’m an old man now but Herring was a good man. I should have enough room for you to stay with me. I know my grandsons Geel and Iaana can be mean to you so I’ll talk to them and in order to set them straight on their manners and if they can’t be friends to just leave you alone.”

 

“No!” Medaka said in alarm and then stopped and spoke again, “I mean... those two are the only kids who talk to me. Even if they are a little mean I still don’t want them to be kept away. I don’t have any friends.”

 

“I don’t know... this Luffy fellow sounds like he’s pretty friendly even though he’s a pirate. You don’t have to tolerate cruelty for companionship, Medaka. Have fun at the party, no curfew tonight.”

 

The mayor and her probable new guardian left and Medaka paused for a moment looking between the crowd of kids who were gathering together in order to celebrate and the three people and two bird pirate group. Luffy did know some fun pirate songs but she had been pretty bossy to him today. 

 

Luffy looked up and waved her over, “Medaka! Come on! Let’s eat together already!”

 

The party lasted for hours, long into the night. 

 

“When do you and your crew plan to leave this island, young man?” The mayor inquired, having made his way over to Luffy during a brief intermission between finishing his twelfth helping of picanha and waiting for his thirteenth to be brought out. It was long past curfew for most of the kids but the adults were still celebrating their new freedom from the wicked pirates.

 

“After my ship Dawn is fixed,” Luffy said with a grin as he expertly ignored the local butcher who seemed to be giving him a stink eye. His eyes were only on the meat waiters who were making their way around the party with their knives and a skewers (and their meat).

 

The mayor seemed worried and he asked, “Was your ship destroyed by Ganzack then? I wasn’t aware. We of course can provide you with a boat if you need one to leave our island.”

 

“No, don’t need one,” Luffy said before pointing up at the green bird perched on his straw hat, “Dawn will take care of it. She’ll be ready to sail again in the morning, right Dawnie?”

 

“That’s right. I should be finished a little bit after sunrise so enjoy the party some more. I’ll take up your offer on a boat though, Mr. Mayor - I don’t want to waste energy finishing one up if I don’t have to. Just moor it to the dock and I’ll fetch it later.”

 

The mayor seemed mystified by her request but nodded his agreement anyway. “Of course. Anything to get you going as soon as possible. I’ll even fill it with some dry provisions. Oh look - the waiter came back. I’m off to arrange that boat your bird wants.”

 

Luffy excitedly waived the waiter down and got started on his thirteenth serving - which may have been the best tasting serving yet! The lure fluttered away from Luffy several feet away to where Zoro was matching Luffy’s consumption rate and total volume only with the source being sake instead of meat. Ann sat opposite him and was a medium between Luffy and Zoro, eating and drinking nearly as quickly as them but much more politely and slowly, being only on her seventh serving. She needed to build up her energy from using so much magic again and was less self conscious now about eating so much in order to replenish it instead of sleeping it off like she had previously done.

 

Medaka was in the middle of petting the (incredibly soft) feathers of Balloon while she excitedly chatted with the whole crew, “You’re really chasing your dreams and are all so strong. I’ve always wanted to go out to sea, you know! I'd go anywhere the wind was blowing, sailing for adventure out on the deep blue sea.”

 

Somehow Medaka’s comment seemed to spur both Luffy and Dawn to sing (off key but enthusiastically) and Zoro, not having heard the song before simply was amused when Ann and Balloon joined in (Balloon somehow sounding better than both Luffy and Dawn despite being unable to speak).

 

“~Hey ho we'll go ~Anywhere the wind is blowing ~Hoist the sails and sing ~Sailing for adventure on the deep blue sea ~We'll chase our dreams standing on our own ~Over the horizon to the great unknown~”

 

Medaka got up to grab some more juice from the counter and seeing the mayor was huddled close to his buddies in the town council quietly snuck over in order to listen to their conversation out of habit.

 

The mayor’s voice made her freeze when she heard the discussion involved her father though.

 

“-will by no means clear her bloodline of being guilty of piracy. The curse of her father is obviously going to carry over onto his child. Our best plan after this will allow her to stay here on the island only if she never comes into town. I don’t want her cursing my grandchildren and I’m certain you don’t want anyone with a curse to be involved with your own children.”

 

There were some murmurs of agreement but Medaka had heard enough. She got her juice and stood still for a moment in order to watch Luffy and his crew having a great time, singing and merry making as they enjoyed the banquet. She sighed to herself and after speaking softly to Ann walked out the town hall and back towards her house. It was time for her to go home.

 

A little after the sun rose the next morning Luffy hustled Ann, Zoro and Balloon out of the Town Hall as he followed the sparrow lure Dawn had made to bring them to the dock. Ann was nursing a hangover and Zoro was just tired. As soon as he could manage it he would be taking a nap up on Dawn’s deck. As they walked Dawn chatted excitedly to them.

 

“Ready to get going? I moved from the shore where I made landfall over to the town dock. I’ll look a little different thanks to my alterations but you should be able to recognise me,” Dawn said as she flew over the top of Zoro’s head and fluttered teasingly around Ann and Balloon. 

 

“Yeah. It’s time to go.” Luffy said and pouted, “Too bad there’s no leftovers for us to bring along from the party.”

 

“Knowing you there never will be leftovers after a party,” Dawn said with a twittering laugh, “Where’d Medaka go? I thought she might want to say goodbye before we leave.”

 

“She said she was going home around midnight,” Ann answered, “I think she was getting tired.”

 

“I don’t think she’s the type to cry over saying goodbye,” Zoro said, “The kid seemed more like an angry crier than a sad crier to me.”

 

“We’re here! Take a look at me! How do you like my makeover?” Dawn said with an excited laugh as her lure flew onto the ship and merged into the hull seamlessly,

 

Luffy laughed with delight upon seeing Dawn’s newest appearance. She still had a figurehead that now resembled some sort for feathered dragon instead of its previous scaled dragon appearance. Her main sails were now a creamy white and seemed to be begging for a pirate emblem to be painted onto it. Her hull was still a rich green but on her starboard side a gold colored mark that resembled a lightning strike went from the top of the rail to somewhere below the water line. She had enlarged from a thirty foot boat with only room for a little bit of deck space up to a sixty foot long fully equipped ship.

 

“Wow Dawn, You look great!” Ann said feeling amazed over the changes Dawn had somehow done over the course of one night. It was enough to make her completely forget about her slight hangover.

 

Zoro eyed the lightning strike mark and nodded in agreement, “Do you choose the scars you want to keep?”

 

The ship flapped her sails in the living ship equivalent of a shrug before saying, “Kind of. The scars will show as either a different type of wood or some kind of metal but I can pick which material to use. I decided bronze would look neat so I primarily used that. I have space for everyone to live more comfortably on board now. Come aboard and take a look around.”

 

Luffy was already on board before Zoro, Ann and Balloon could even come up the dock. The two humans shortly joined Luffy in taking a look around the ‘new’ ship. Though her hull was green the rest of the wood on the deck and masts was a rich warm cedar brown with shining brass metalwork and facenings. The main deck was just a little bit longer than the forecastle and poop combined. The railing on Dawn was now about a meter high but seemed to be hollowed out in different areas in order to make space for rich soil in order to start growing out plants. 

 

The main mast came up from amidship and had two square hatches fore and aft that lead down to the lower deck. These hatches could be kept open in order to allow light and fresh air into the lower deck (in bad weather they would likely be kept shut). On one side of the main deck, just aft of the forecastle, there was a lifeless ten foot long boat, while the other side had a combination bird house and coop where Balloon and the chickens could roost where Mango-Tango and Very-Berry were already settled in. It conveniently had a latch that Balloon could use to open or shut in order to go in and out with only his beak. There was a fighting top and crows nest on top of the main mast just above the large main sail.

 

On the poop deck was a wheeled helm and benches built into the railing for people to keep whoever was manning the helm company if there wasn’t work or play to be done. Behind that was Dawn’s tail, the carved counterpart to the head at the front of the ship. Within the tail was a short cushioned bench for people to sit and look out the long, narrow windows both port and starboard side. Up on the forecastle there was a shorter foremast which had two smaller triangular sails that were colored rich purple and creamy yellow.

 

Underneath the forecastle was the galley. The galley had an oven with a range on top of it along with a deep sink on one side and many shelves filled with pans, pots and cooking utensils opposite to the sink. On the far side of the sink, away from the oven was a both a pull out icebox (not yet filled with any food or drinks) and a refrigerator with a combination lock on the handle. Everything necessary in a floating kitchen is there including the rations the townsfolk had provided in the ten foot boat but it was otherwise empty of any other food. Though the galley took up the most room there were also four smaller cabins for a rudimentary first aid clinic, the head, a shower stall, and a workshop.

 

Beneath the poop deck were the two new crew quarters instead of one large single captain’s quarters. The cabins both had square windows that could be opened and the walls were warm brown and had green vines blooming with real flowers that freshened the air and were very vibrant. Each cabin had three windows that looked out to the blue water along with low hanging cushioned futons to be placed where desired and each cabin had enough room for five or so people to stay in. The crew’s ‘treasure chest’ was in the middle of the port side cabin.

 

The lower deck of Dawn could be accessed from one of two hatches in the main deck. The bulk of the lower deck seemed to be taken up by the crew’s common area, where the crew could relax, eat, work out, or if necessary row during times of little or no wind. There were storage chests that also acted as benches on either side of the ship containing supplies, blankets, oars and were otherwise currently empty. There were portholes on either side of the ship, one for each chest, where long oars could be extended from the ship.

 

Running down the center of the lower deck, in between the benches, was the cargo pit. It was an open area that ran almost all the way down to Dawn's keel. In there could be kept all manner of non-perishable foods and supplies. She had some sort of bronze filtration system that had the appearance of winding branches that could pipe fresh water to and from the galley and the head.

 

At the aft of and slightly below the lower deck was a low cabin that could be used as guest quarters or a very comfortable brig in a pinch. There were several low, thick round windows in this cabin, designed to be at or below the water line and thus needed to remain closed. 

 

Having thoroughly been explored Balloon settled up on top of the crows nest, making himself a comfortable seat. Ann checked on the bird house and was amused to see that both Very-Berry and Mango-Tango seemed to be pleased with their new ‘cabin’ and were playing with each other in their upgraded accommodations. Zoro wandered on the main deck for a little bit and was satisfied that there seemed to be more than enough room for him to train or maneuver in a fight if it were necessary. 

 

It was only Luffy and Dawn who noticed a small figure approaching the dock while looking at the new ship with interest. The curly red hair indicated from a distance that it was Medaka. She was wearing a mismatch of both the castle and pirate mannequin’s clothing from her home which resulted in a lot of bright mismatched colors and layers. In addition to the clothes she also was wearing a belt that holstered the pair of pistols she had been using in the fight the day before, a leather pouch busting at the seems but cinched shut, and a pair of sturdy but comfortable looking deck shoes. She was also carrying a oilskin bag nearly as big as she was filled up to the brim over her shoulder. Despite her departure from her previously knightly appearance Luffy called out a cheery good morning.

 

“Medaka! Did you come to see us off?” Luffy asked.

 

There was a stubborn expression on her face as she called up, “Luffy! Let me join your crew!”

 

“What? The kid wants to join?” Zoro asked out loud and Ann exited the birdhouse in order to look over the railing in concern.

 

“Eh? Why?” Luffy asked before suddenly remembering that her dad wouldn’t be around to watch her any more. Weren't the townspeople going to take her in after all she had gone through in order to rid the island of pirates and find her dad? Especially after they had thrown them such a nice party for kicking Ganzack off their island.

 

Medaka fidgeted nervously for a moment and spoke again, “Since everyone in town knows I’m the daughter of a pirate now and I’m too rough with their kids they said I need to look after myself now. I could do that fine but I’d rather have some people to be with. I don’t want to be alone anymore and being a pirate is in my blood! I’ve always wanted to be a pirate but I don’t want to be a bad pirate like my father was - I’d rather be a pirate like you. I’ll work hard to be a good pirate apprentice, so please take me with you!”

 

Luffy seemed to be deciding what to do and while Zoro decided he wouldn’t mind having the kid around (considering she seemed to be pretty resilient) Ann decided she needed to voice her own concern. 

 

“You aren’t trying to run away are you?” Ann asked cautiously, “Luffy wants to be the Pirate King and it will be very dangerous to be with us - especially once we get to the Grand Line. You’d be safe on this island.”

 

“Please take her.” 

 

Luffy didn’t want to believe what he was seeing, but sure enough the town mayor had appeared on the dock, standing behind Medaka while giving her a cold stare, “We, the people of this town and island, want nothing to do with Medaka. We’ll even pay you pirates to take Medaka as incentive if you wish.” 

 

Medaka scowled fiercely and averted her eyes away from watching Luffy (and to keep him from seeing how hurt she was over the people of her island rejecting her.)

 

“I refuse.” Luffy said and Medaka closed her eyes. She wouldn’t cry - she knew there was a chance that Luffy wouldn’t take her when she asked. She wasn’t good enough for her own father so why would some people she’d only known for less than a day want her to be with them?

 

The feeling of an arm winding around her waist and a hand grabbing onto her shoulder caused her eyes to pop back open but she was airborne and at Luffy’s side before she could do anything other than yelp in alarm. She looked up and saw that Luffy was looking at the mayor with a similar glare (but not exact) of anger that he had often shot towards Ganzack and said, “I refuse to take any of your stupid money because she’s worth more than anything you could pay anyway.”

 

Medaka startled when Ann placed her own hand on her shoulder and with her own glare at the mayor said, “Anyone willing to sell a child to anyone deserves much worse than a pirate invasion.”

 

“You won’t be getting the kid back.” Zoro agreed as he placed a hand on Wado Ichimonji and sent his own glare towards the mayor. The kid was part of the crew now, he definitely would start improving her fighting skills as soon as possible or else she might get crazy ideas like Kuina did for a short time about ‘girls become weak when they grow up’.

 

“Let’s go, Dawn. We won’t ever return to this island again,” Luffy ordered as he turned away from the mayor - he didn’t even want to look at him anymore. Since he’d shared meat with Luffy the night before he though the mayor was a good guy and Luffy did not like being wrong about someone. With Dawn’s anchor weighed and without any delay though with some unnecessary but welcomed work from the crew Dawn adjusted her sails and the straw hat pirates left the little island without looking back.

 

Medaka was covering her eyes so no one could see her cry but Luffy picked up on it instantly, “Ah! Medaka! You might be a kid but so was Shanks when he started and I bet you’ll be a better apprentice than he ever was because your  _ my _ apprentice. So don’t cry now! The straw hat pirates official cabin girl isn’t a crybaby, is she?”

 

Medaka ineffectually punched Luffy in his chest and shouted, “Shut up, you stupid captain! I ain’t crying. I just got seawater in my eyes!”

 

“An apprentice, huh?” Zoro said with a teasing smile, “I’ll show you using a sword properly isn’t just about pointing the sharp end at the other person.”

 

“I’ll teach you how to sail properly,” Dawn said causing Medaka to yelp in alarm - she hadn’t actually thought that Luffy actually had a living ship, she still had thought he had just been telling a story.

 

“And I’ll show you how to keep an eye out for trouble and how to get out of dangerous situations,” Ann said with excitement before bending closer to whisper, “and if you turn out to have any magic I can help you learn how to use it properly and safely.”

 

“Well I’m gonna teach you how to eat, fight and how be a great pirate!” Luffy said pumping his fists into the air, “And how to play real pirate games! Come on! I want to show you our treasure chest! We’ll have a pirate party to celebrate you joining the crew!”

 

Luffy reached his hand out to Medaka and with an exuberant laugh pulled her over in the direction of the cabins and Medaka echoed it with her own laugh filled with a mixture of relief and excitement. Being with these people was sure going to be interesting.

 

Meanwhile back on the island a different celebration was beginning to take shape.

 

“Are you sure this was the right way to get her to go?” the barkeeper asked as the mayor made his way back to the bar where the town council had gathered in the early morning to complete their plans for getting Medaka to go with the pirates.

 

“If we didn’t make sure to do something like this they might have left her behind,” the mayor said with regret.

 

“Wouldn’t that have been fine?” the butcher asked again feeling a bit mopey over all the meat that had been used for the party, but was glad in the end that the pirate occupation of their island was now over for good.

 

The mayor sat at the counter with a grunt and said, “She would have been safe here...but she wouldn’t have been happy. I’m happy just knowing she’s with people who will protect her and give her the adventurous life she’s craved all the years she’s lived here. Our kids don’t have the grit for a pirate’s life but Medaka does. Medaka may be a ruffian but Medaka isn’t stupid, after all.” 

 

The barkeeper nodded and said, “Even if she never returns I’ll be sure to keep a look at any news about these Straw Hat pirates. They’ll be famous one day, I’m sure of it. Come on, let’s have a sunrise toast to the Straw Hats!”

 

“Cheers!” The town council called out as they clinked their drinks together.

 

To be continued…

 

Up next: Does anyone know how to get anywhere on this crew? In honor of Camille Saint-Saëns this writer is proud to present an island with a real carnival of animals feeling to it. 


	5. A Carnival of Animals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On behalf of Camille Saint Sainz I present to you the Buggy Pirates. On the Island of Rare Animals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, settings, etc. of One Piece are the property of Oda Eiichiro. No copyright infringement is intended.

_**"There is all the difference in the world between treasure and money." - Roderick Townley** _

* * *

 

The sun had only just peeked above the horizon when Dawn felt feet shuffling staggardly across the deck in the direction of the forecastle. It was the third morning in a row this had happened. It appeared to now be proven that the youngest member of the crew really was an early riser.

When Medaka went into the med bay instead of the galley though Dawn spoke up, startling the girl into jumping a little.

"Is something wrong, Medaka?"

Having been reminded of Dawn's omnipresence on the ship Medaka said, "I'm looking for something to take to make me feel better since I have a stomach ache again this morning. Do you have any spearmint extract in here? My dad would always give me that if I felt sick like this."

"Hmm... no I haven't ever eaten any mint before so I can't reproduce any. Come into the kitchen though and I should have something I can give you that might help," Dawn said while simultaneously opening the doors of the med bay and the galley.

Once she was in the galley Medaka looked around in curiosity and asked, "What are you going to give to me?"

"Look over here," there was some movement to one side of the galley next to the sink where a vine was beaconing over towards a shelf with three levels that had ceramic pots filled with soil and sprouting up with various plants.

"What are all these plants for?" Medaka asked as she wandered over and knelt next to the long, shallow pot on the lowest shelf that the vine was pointing towards.

"These? Oh I'm starting on growing some herbs and spices so when we finally get a cook you all can have more flavors to choose from. Check this lowest tray - the plant there is ginger and there's a short knife in the knife rack that you can use to cut a bit of root out."

"Ginger?" Medaka asked as she fetched the mentioned knife and went to work, "What am I going to do with it?"

"I'll peel the root and I think it will make you feel better if you chew on it or I can heat some water for tea."

"I'll have it as tea then. How do you know ginger will help?"

Medaka watched in fascination as a few vines grew down from the ceiling and grabbed a kettle and filled it with water from the sink before bringing it over to heat up on top of the hot stove range. The other vines took the bit of ginger root and knife from Medaka and quickly peeled and minced it up before dropping it into a ceramic mug.

As she worked Dawn said, "Some things about humans I've known my whole life but other things I will either remember randomly or else something will remind me of something I've forgotten. You mentioned your dad gave you spearmint when you were sick and that reminded me that ginger can help with motion sickness in humans."

The vine took the now steaming hot water and poured it into the mug on top of the minced ginger and cautioned, "Let it cool down and then drink up! Seems like Luffy is waking up now too."

From all the way across the ship Medaka could hear Luffy's voice shout, "Dawnie! Let's play Treasure Tag today! It's fun and will be good pirate practice for Medaka!"

"You just want to play a game," Dawn accused, but not harshly, as her voice reached Luffy and Medaka at the same volume. "Why don't you start after everyone's eaten breakfast?"

As Luffy crashed around urging Zoro and Ann to wake up faster a vine nudged the cup of warm water and minced ginger towards Medaka. She picked it up and sipped it only to pinch her eyes shut in a slight grimace. Warm water with a hint of ginger with a minced up pulpy pile of fresh ginger at the bottom of the cup. This ship was nice but didn't know a thing about how to make a good cup of tea.

Ten minutes later Luffy had pestered Ann into making a quick breakfast. Ann was still wearing her pajamas which (thanks to Balloon's black and white feathers which were sewn into them) made her look like she had some kind of bird body with a human head and limbs. The tailfeathers certainly didn't help the image. She thought it would be fine since it was only pajamas but she had severely underestimated the maturity of her crewmates. Zoro's loud laughter when he spotted her was the loudest that she had ever heard from him so far which just spurred Luffy into laughing the same way. With Balloon cawing up in the crows nest in equal amusement at her predicament Ann blushed and she wondered if it would be worth it to get revenge on them for teasing her.

With minor revenge in her mind she decided to just make eggs and toast without any jerky or bacon in to attempt to rebuff Luffy but one miserable face was enough for her to crumble and add jerky to the breakfast menu after all. If only she could use the aggressive bravado she had learned to use during unsafe situations the same way when she was genuinely getting along with people she liked.

This was necessary, she convinced herself as she added the jerky to the menu, in order to try to slightly curb Luffy's never-ending-never-satisfied appetite for meat. Now that she had opened up about being a magic user she was much more comfortable about using magic openly and so with a spell had duplicated the two eggs that Mango-Tango and Very-Berry had laid that morning from two to a dozen (though only the two original eggs contained gold, the duplicates were just colorful eggs).

Zoro had woken up that morning from Luffy jumping on him only to find Berry had been sleeping next to his head on his futon with no explanation on how she had escaped the bird coop and entered their cabin and was still brushing blue or purple fluffy feathers out from his hair. After having a laugh at Ann's choice in clothing he had settled down and was using a spoon to eat warm ginger mush out of a cup of that Medaka had handed to him as he entered the galley. "Aren't these birds supposed to be magically drawn to you? Why does Berry always find me when I go to sleep?"

"Who knows? Very-Berry likes sleeping so maybe she sensed a kindred spirit in you." Ann said with a shrug as she added a shake of salt to the cooking scrambled eggs. "Birds do tend to like me fine thanks to my magic but they can like someone more than me just from their own personal preferences."

Luffy in the meantime had been twisted up into a curtain of vines that Dawn had sprouted between the top and bottom of the door frame of the galley that were effectively keeping him out of the way so he couldn't keep sneaking away pieces of jerky while Ann cooked.

Medaka crouched next to him and asked, "What's Treasure Tag?"

Luffy stopped in his struggle in the vine curtain and enthusiastically said, "It's super fun! A treasure hider has a list of things that the treasure hunters are after. The one who hides the treasure is allowed to set traps or fight if they want to get the treasure back if the treasure is found by the treasure hunters. The winner is either the treasure hunter who gets all the treasure first or the treasure hider wins if they hide the treasure to well or if they fight and gets the treasure back from the hunters."

"Fights?" Medaka said and knowing how hard she'd seen him hit in a fight said, "No thanks."

Luffy pouted in disappointment and said, "Don't be so boring! It's fun."

"He means 'tags' by the way," Dawn said, "His brothers always fought him when they played because Luffy kept trying to cheat and say he didn't feel it when they tagged him. He's rubber so hitting him doesn't hurt (unless it's his grampa)."

"That's because I can bounce." Luffy said with a grin and shameless shishishi.

"The food's ready." Ann called as she handed Medaka and Luffy each a plate piled with food. Luffy's had more jerky and Medaka's had more toast. Medaka ate her jerky first so Luffy wouldn't have a chance to steal it away from her.

Upon learning about Medaka's seasickness from earlier Ann prepared her a proper cup of ginger tea (including adding a teaspoon of sugar to it with a surreptitious wink to Medaka) and admonished her to let her know if she was feeling unwell since they were sharing a room together.

Once everyone had eaten and Luffy was completely untangled from the vines he stood up and said, "Dawn give us the list for today's Treasure Tag."

A sheet of paper fluttered down from the ceiling in front of the human crew, which Luffy eagerly snatched up before it could land on the floor. He squinted at the paper and slowly read out loud, "Six treasures in six colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple."

"Yep, this is a new version of Treasure Tag now that we're sailing," Dawn piped up, "Instead of hiding away stuff I already have on board you and everyone else are going to find new treasures at the next island we stop at. I'll give you points for each category: one point for minerals, two points for plants and three points for animal byproducts (that means: shells, feathers, shed skins and things like that, Luffy). Plus if you find one thing that has all six colors you get five bonus points no matter what it is. You can have multiples of a color but the first one to collect something of each color finishes the match."

Ann laughed and said, "Then by your rules rubies and emeralds would be worth less points than flowers or feathers, right?"

"Aren't we supposed to be going to the Grand Line instead of stopping all day on an island?" Zoro interjected dryly. He didn't actually mind stopping for a little bit since he wanted to test out his swords against cutting through steel. During his practice the night before he had finally gotten up to at least being able to shave the steel but still couldn't cut all the way through yet.

Dawn said, "This is just to teach Medaka the important pirate skill of knowing how to spot treasure that isn't only about shiny things, Ann (though shiny things can be nice to have around). We'll get to the Grand Line before you know it, right Luffy?"

"Right! Help us find the nearest island, Ann!" Luffy urged insistently, "The faster we get there the faster we can start our Treasure Hunt!"

"Are we allowed to take treasure that someone else already found?" Medaka asked, "Like if Luffy finds a six colored clam shell and I want to take it from him."

"You better not take my shell," Luffy argued back immaturely, "or else I'll take your six colored flower."

"I don't have a six colored flower though," Medaka retorted.

"And I don't have a six colored shell yet but that doesn't mean I'll just let you take it! It's still Treasure Tag so if I catch anyone taking my treasure and tag you then you have to give it back, so there." Luffy argued, punctuating his statement by sticking his tongue out (by a foot causing him to look like he was mimicking a frog) at Medaka with a 'nyeh'.

"Fine, fine," Ann agreed and said seeing as her captain was now in the middle of an argument with their youngest member, "Please go on and grow one of those lures and I'll take it up with me."

"Don't cheat and land on the island before we get there," Luffy demanded as a lizard lure was handed to Ann by a vine as she exited the galley to head up to the crows nest and take Balloon up to find the nearest island.

"I wouldn't dream of it." Ann said with a teasing grin.

Medaka rushed out to the deck and watched with fascination as Ann and Balloon took off up into the sky. Within moments they were high in the sky and Medaka said, "It looks so much fun to fly."

"Yep. But only if Balloon isn't carrying you with his beak," Luffy said with a knowing nod while Medaka began to look contemplative.

Ann kept an eye out in all directions looking for any sign of an island as she and Balloon flew around for about twenty minutes before she spotted something out on the horizon. She urged Balloon forward and double checked in order to make sure it was a proper island and not a knoll or just a small spit of land and whooped in delight when she got a good look at it.

Ann shielded her eyes and peered down in the direction of the island. It was a surprisingly tall island and seemed to be tiered like a large multi layered cake with different levels all covered in jungle except for the very top plateau which was bare stone. There was a very thin beach reaching almost all the way around the island that only reached as far as ten feet into shore before it turned into tropical plants and more cliffs. It looked like she had found the perfect island for their day of fun.

"Dawn, let everyone know I found an island. It doesn't look inhabited but we should still be able to play Luffy's game there. I'll be back in ten minutes or so and it'll only take about an hour for you to get there by sea."

"We'll see you when you return," Dawn said through the lure, "Luffy says we'll start heading in your direction though."

As she and Balloon veered away she missed it when a brightly colored ship with a flashy purple hull sailed in from the opposite direction that she left. It dropped anchor at the island next to a smaller ship that Ann hadn't seen from up above only a few minutes later.

* * *

It actually took a little longer than an hour for the straw hats to arrive at the island and then disembark because Ann was insistent that Medaka couldn't go running around an unknown island barefooted and still in her pajamas. Medaka agreed on the condition that Ann would have to wear what Medaka picked for her in exchange. Ann regretted her promise when Medaka asked that Ann stay in her pajamas for the rest of the day.

Ann, figuring their stay on the island would last a few hours minimum, packed up trail snacks including jerky (extra for Luffy), dried fruit and crackers for everyone to have a snack in case they couldn't find any ripe fruit while exploring around the island.

Once they were all gathered on shore with Medaka wearing a loose fitting orange and white striped shirt with brown pants along with a red bandana tied around her neck, a pair of sturdy shoes and a leather belt with her snack pouch tied on one side and an empty pouch ment for her to hold onto any collected treasure attached on the other. Ann helped pull her hair into a low hanging short ponytail and then asked, "You ready to go?"

"In a bit. LUFFY!" Medaka shouted as she ran up to him.

Luffy smiled at her as she approached and said, "Medaka! You ready for Treasure Tag?"

"I want to challenge you!" Medaka declared as she stood straight and tilted her head up to look him in the eyes, "As an extra challenge we'll race each other to find seven treasures, one of each color AND one with all six colors to win. Whoever one of us gets all the treasures first gets to have a ride on Balloon with Ann next time she goes up!"

"Awesome! I've wanted to go flying again for a long time! It's a deal - I can't get help from anyone on the crew and neither can you though." Luffy said, adding on his own rule.

"Fine. It's a deal." Medaka said as she and Luffy shook on it.

"Don't I get a say in this?" Ann asked but when the two kids turned their puppy dog eyes on her she relented and said, "Fine. I'll join the challenge too but if I win then you both will have to wear one of these feather outfits the next time we land on an island instead of me."

Dawn chuckled and said, "Well I can't make three lures to see who gets their treasures first so the first one to come back to me with all their winning treasures is the winner. I'll find something to do while you all have your contest."

Two green lures grew out of the hull of the ship - identical looking capuchin-like monkeys with green leaf fur, purple faces and golden eyes. Each lure waived at the group and went into the forest to begin to forage for interesting materials for her to bring back.

Dawn's figurehead grinned at the crew and she said, "Alright. Game players get ready! The game is set to begin in three...two...one...GO!"

Luffy immediately took a long bouncy leap straight into the forest (landing up on the second layer of the island 'cake' in an instant before taking another giant leap) whooping in excitement with Ann following him in shortly after with Balloon right at her side.

Medaka on the other hand, ran down the shore straight to Zoro and asked, "Will you help me beat Luffy?"

"You're the one who issued the challenge to him so I refuse. I'm going to go and train for a while," Zoro replied as he began to walk up the shore line to find a place to finally get a breakthrough in cutting steel. How could he be the greatest swordsman in the world if he couldn't even do that?

"Hey, that's not fair!" Medaka complained to Zoro who snorted and walked further up the shore.

"You should seek victory in your challenges, not fairness."

"Fine then! You'll see! I'll find a way to win even without you!" Medaka hollered back before she left in the opposite direction of Zoro. It had been a long shot to ask Zoro but she really wanted to win. She would need a good plan and a lot of luck to win the Treasure Tag game but she knew she could do it! If she won it would certainly prove her worth to the crew and show them they hadn't made a mistake by bringing her along with them!

* * *

Nami had really bitten off more than she could handle during this last quick job she had pulled. Why did she ever think that the captain of the three pirate clowns she had swindled would be equally as useless as his subordinates? She cursed to herself in frustration as she nearly tripped over a tree root. It was amateurish of her to have assumed so and had been as if she assumed Arlong was the same as Hatchi was just because they were on the same crew.

She had escaped from Orange Town, barely getting away from the goons Buggy the Immortal Clown had sent after her. Once she was on the open sea it should've been as easy as ever for her to shake of her pursuers but it seemed that Buggy was a special case since he immediately had come after her and wouldn't be shaken from her trail. Even after four days he hadn't stopped his pursuit of her.

If he was after her like this just for stealing one little map she should've just helped herself to some of his treasure when she had the chance as well!

Now she was running around a (supposedly) cursed jungle island trying to escape from even more of the clown pirates who had been sent after her. Nami wasn't very superstitious so hiding out on an island surrounded with horrifying rumors had seemed like a good idea at dawn but now...

Nami flinched when she heard one of the pursuing pirates slice through a tree and ducked behind a further one. What was with this guy? He had looked pretty dumb for riding a unicycle into the jungle but if you could cut through trees like a hot knife into butter who cared how dumb you seemed to other people? The six men he had with him cheered him on like he was a celebrity.

"She's up ahead!" One of the goons called out, spotting a flash of her orange hair, and Nami veered to the right with only sheer luck allowing her to avoid the swing of a blade as it bisected another tree.

Unluckily for her a split second later she was circled by the ragged group of pirates in an arc with a tree preventing a quick escape.

The unicycle riding pirate pointed his sword at her and as he sneered down at her said, "I've got you now, you thief! No one steals from the Buggy Pirates and gets away with it!"

So this was it. Nami was going to die alone and forgotten on a cursed island from getting herself killed by pirates. Her only regret was that she hadn't yet freed her village from Arlong. Just before the dumb looking unicycle acrobatic swordsman pirate could slice her into pieces though both he and Nami heard something that made them and his accompaniment of men freeze in motion.

"Heeeerreee IIIII gooOOO!" Thanks to the doppler effect everyone heard the interloper before they saw him.

With a surprisingly heavy sounding crash through the tree branches above, a straw hat wearing guy fell out from the sky and landed in the middle of the clearing right between Nami and the pirates.

There was a single moment of silence before the unicycle acrobatic swordsman pirate demanded, "Who the hell are you and what are you doing here!?"

An opening to escape! Finally! Nami put on her best acting skills and exclaimed, "Boss! You really came to save me! Thanks so much!"

The new guy had just enough time to say "Eh?" before Nami fled into the jungle and the unicycle pirate turned his attention over to the interloper.

"So you're the boss of that thief! You'll pay for what she did! Breath of Death!" While he was still blinking in confusion Luffy took a fire blast to the face but proved to be unscathed when he retaliated by kicking the unicycle out from under his attacker.

His face was slightly singed and he caught a whiff of his hat smelling slightly smokey and with a scowl said, "Hey! Don't you dare ruin my hat - you baldy!"

"Baldy!? How dare you insult me! I'm Cabaji, the Chief of Staff of the Buggy Pirates! I'll slice you into pieces!" Cabaji threatened and swung his sword down, "You've got a real attitude problem!"

Luffy easily ducked his blade and sassed back, "Well you've got a real hair problem, baldy! Leave my hat alone!"

"I'll kill you, you stupid monkey man! You don't know when to quit, do you?" Cabaji said as he charged towards Luffy.

Luffy didn't falter a single moment and he retorted, "Neither did whoever cut your hair."

Nami didn't see the details of what happened next but she did see the end result when Cabaji and the six pirate goons with him were sent flying down to a lower level of the island thanks to her coincidental scapegoat turned savior. Nami could hardly believe her good fortune!

Nami came out from behind the trees where she had been hiding and said, "Wow, you're really something else, aren't you? I'm Nami, a thief who seals from pirates. Want to team up with me to escape this island?"

"No," the tough guy replied, "I'm busy but you can look for treasure with me if you want."

"Really?" Nami asked excitedly, "I want you to split it 80/20 since finding treasure's my specialty. I want to make 100,000,000 beri so I can buy a village so I need a bigger cut. What's your name anyway?"

"I'm Luffy and I'm going to be King of the Pirates! Now let's go! I've got treasure to find!" Luffy said as he pointed into the jungle. Nami pushed her hands into her face and stifled a scream. Not another pirate! Today was just not her lucky day.

* * *

It sure was Ann's lucky day! She had only been going through the jungle for a little less than fifteen minutes and she had already attracted a blue lorikeet, a yellow lorikeet and a pair of green winged lorikeets. The only issue she was currently having was transportation. The yellow lorikeet was perched on her head, the blue one was on her shoulder and the two green ones were sharing an arm as a perch but she was almost out of room on herself for birds to perch on.

Balloon had already refused to allow the interlopers to touch him and he was currently snubbing her by settling down against a large tree and refusing to budge for thinking of the random ordinary birds as potential 'treasures'.

"I really don't appreciate your attitude today, Ballon." Ann said to Balloon to which he snapped his beak at her in irritation in return and ruffled his feathers at her.

"If you aren't going to be helpful you might as well as go back to Dawn and keep her company. You're being awfully broody." Balloon squawked at her in a huff and turned off in order to fly off in the direction where Dawn was anchored while Ann forged onwards. A few hours or so outside the company of each other wouldn't do any harm and Ann knew if either she or Balloon were truly in trouble each of them would come to the other's side as soon as possible.

It was an adjustment to know the same was starting to bleed over to the rest of the crew. Balloon would always be her dearest treasure but she had very quickly become fond of Luffy, Zoro and even Medaka. Ann sighed and decided Balloon was right (again) and so loosened her willful projection of her magic that was keeping all the ordinary birds extra attached to her. Using magic to give herself an edge against Luffy and Medaka wouldn't be playing their game fairly.

When the loud roar of some kind of big cat suddenly bellowed from somewhere nearby all the birds using her as a perch immediately took flight to hide up in the tree canopies.

Ann cautiously began to look for a place to take cover herself when there was a rustling in the jungle underbrush and an unusual looking creature suddenly darted out in front of her. The creature had the head, neck and tail of a duck but the body, shell and legs of an aquatic turtle. It's neck, tail and head had iridescent black-green feathers while it's shell was a solid dark forest green with a vivid yellow pattern like paint splatters on top.

Even though it was moving quickly Ann could see that it was severely injured with a large crack across the top of its shell that was seeping blood and a mangled back leg that was hanging limp - either it was too painful to move or it was possibly paralyzed since it looked like it had been crushed. Ann immediately went over to help it even as it hissed threateningly at her as she approached it.

"You poor little darling - what could've done this to you? Here, let me help you." Ann avoided getting bitten by its snapping beak and winced sympathetically when she felt a parallel crack on the duck-turtles underside yellow shell. 'Would a wing healing spell work to fix this duck hybrid's shell and injuries?' She wondered silently to herself, but before she could try there was a loud thump followed by an even louder roar as a huge lion entered the clearing.

"There it is Richie! And the thief who stole captain Buggy's map is there too." A very oddly dressed man who was riding on the back of the lion and was now looking at Ann in confusion. "Huh? Why did the thief put on a bird costume?"

"Mohji that's not the thief - the thief had orange hair." Along with the lion and its rider (Mohji?) about four other clownishly dressed men followed after them into the clearing as well.

"That girl's hair is orange." Mohji the lion rider insisted.

"What are you, colorblind? My hair is blue." Ann argued back feeling frazzled and frustrated over this bizarre confrontation. Hadn't this island been deserted when she surveyed it only about two hours ago?

"He is colorblind." One of the men in the posse admitted. "He can't tell the difference between orange and blue."

"Well it doesn't matter anyway. You heard me bird-girl. Hand over the turtle! Richie is still hungry and was getting a snack for more energy to hunt down the thief." Mohji demanded while Richie growled in agreement and licked his chops.

"No way you jerk." Ann said fiercely, holding the semi-aquatic bird-turtle closer to herself protectively. "Feed your pet a proper diet and don't you dare try to hurt such a special bird."

Mohji laughed at her reaction and said, "Who do you think you are, the Guardian of the Island? I'll have you know I love rare animals and making myself their master. As soon as we take out that thief I'll gather all the rare animals I've been seeing and anything I don't care much for (like that turtle) gets to be a snack for Richie instead."

Before Ann could respond to the statement a terrible booming voice, even louder than Richie's roar called out, "GET OUT OR BE CURSED FOREVER!"

"Huh?" "What was that?" "Who's there!?" The clownish gathering all panicked slightly, talking over each other in their alarm.

"I AM THE GUARDIAN OF THE ISLAND!" The voice boomed again. "IF YOU WISH TO LIVE YOU WILL LEAVE THIS ISLAND AT ONCE!"

"Don't pay attention to that voice men - this bird-girl is obviously throwing and disguising her voice in order to trick us all! We shouldn't fear a simple voice trick!" Mohji said, full of bravado and completely sure of himself.

"A NONBELIEVER? THEN TAKE MY HEAVENLY JUDGEMENT!" The voice called out and with a sharp crack Mohji flinched away saving himself from a fatal shot but fell gracelessly from where he had been perched up on Richie and groaned in pain as he pressed his hand down to cover his now bleeding shoulder. The smell of fresh blood, even if it was that of his master, caused Richie's nose to twitch.

"It's the Heavenly Judgement!" One of the men cried out and ducked down to cover his head with his arms like a child. "Spare me, Guardian of the Island!"

Another had been looking in the direction the crack had come from and with a shaking hand pointed his finger and stuttered out, "T-the Guardian of t-the Island t-took the form of a-a-a giant land marimo ball! Run before it catches us!"

Two of the four clownish men had enough sense to grab their leader and they all fled in fear of the Guardian with Richie the lion stalking right behind him, drawn by wounded prey and forgetting for the moment that he was hunting after his master.

Ann cautiously watched the 'marimo', still holding the duck-turtle and after nearly a minute of silence said, "You aren't one of my crewmates but thank you for the help."

The booming voice, many decibels quieter now but still loud nevertheless, let out a bizarre laugh and said, "You tried to help one of my friends so I just returned the favor, girl! What are you and your crew doing on my island?"

"Playing Treasure Tag with my captain and our cabin girl," Ann said and jumped back when she heard the revolver crack, just barely avoiding the bullet shot at her.

"I've been guarding that treasure for 20 years girl so that treasure is rightfully mine!"

"We don't want YOUR treasure, you moronic mossball! We're playing a game to collect things." Ann shouted in frustration, "We're just looking for plants, rocks and shells and such to show our pirate apprentice how to look for treasure."

The bush began to audibly sniffle and in an even quieter voice he said, "What a good pirate crew you youngins are! Taking the time to show the next generation the skills needed to make it as a pirate. I'm so proud of you all! I'll let you go if you give my duck-turtle friend back."

Ann looked down at the duck-turtle, who was now dozing off in her arms and said, "I need to go back to my ship first in order to patch her up. I think she was bitten by that lion."

"She sure was. The rest of her flock got away in time but that one was snatched up. Once a duck-turtle's shell is cracked though it's too late to save them. That poor one there will die before the day is through without a doubt. I just want to make her comfortable before she passes and I don't want you to steal or cook her once she's passed away. You aren't moving an inch, or my name isn't Gaimon the Guardian of the Island." The small bush haired man (was he in a planter? a box?) pointed his revolver at her, leaving the two at an impasse.

* * *

Buggy the Immortal Clown was a simple pirate with very simple pirate desires. He loved treasure the most, including but not limited to: shiny things, sparkling things and valuable things. He also secretly treasured a good drink, wild parties and a loyal crew but that was honestly secondary to material treasures to him due to his unending greed over shiny things.

He was also a coward to the core and so he was currently torn by his circumstances.

The vile thief who had stolen his map to Paradise had run away to one of only two places he had always purposefully avoided traveling to - the Cursed Treasure Island. (The other place was the Conomi Islands since he liked his devil fruit powered self undrowned by fishman pirates.)

He couldn't just let the thief get away with stealing from him though. He had his pride as a pirate captain after all! Just because he had heard rumors for years about people dying as soon as they stepped foot in the jungle of the Cursed Treasure Island didn't mean he could shy away from making landfall with his men at least.

He did (instead of risking the curse himself) decide to send some of his men into the jungle under the leadership of both Mohji and Cabaji with enough men kept behind to sail as a skeleton crew just in case the rumors of curses and death were true. Getting replacements of Mohji and Cabaji's caliber here in the East Blue would be a chore but at least if they were cursed or killed they wouldn't be forced to mourn for their dear captain and die within five minutes of Richie the lion taking over as the next captain (seeing as neither Mohji or Cabaji would be skilled enough to be captain following his demise.) The Acrobatic Fuwas had also formed their own group to go after the thief and had brought along a few boxes with them that they claimed contained 'bait' and assured Buggy that their plan for catching the thief would be foolproof.

He had given his men until sunset to return with the thief but staying on the beach of a cursed island was making him restless and so to take his mind of the fact that he was standing on a cursed island (the jungle less than ten feet from the shore) he ordered the rest of his crew to start up a party (in order to celebrate their soon-to-be-completed revenge, he insisted)

Having a party was an excellent way to forget your fears for a short while, he soon found out, as he and his men drank, gambled and laughed with each other as they chatted and sang dirty sea shanties together. With his men very quickly getting drunk Buggy took the time to go on a long and loud rant about treasure and the pursuit of it being the hallmark of a great pirate before transitioning to gripe about thieves. He and his crew didn't even notice it at first when an uninvited guest wandered into the party and joined in on eating alongside them.

"I can't believe that thief thought she could get away with stealing one of my treasures away from me!"

"Not your treasure! How could she!" The red haired kid said sympathetically while piling a plate high with assorted sliced fruits.

"I know! I took it first - no one should just up and steal treasure from me!" Buggy agreed, hardly believing the audacity of the thief. It was always good to hear people agree with him, though.

"Treasure like your cool looking hat?" The red haired kid asked curiously before chewing on a piece of sliced pineapple.

"Of course treasure like my cool looking ha-WHAT!?" Buggy shouted, having now registered the fact that a random red (RED!) haired kid was sitting next to him eating fruit. "Where the hell did you come from!?"

"An island." The kid replied while barely pausing to swallow more food.

"Isn't this island supposed to be deserted?" Buggy demanded to the kid.

"Don't know. I only got here an hour ago. Are you a real pirate?" The kid asked in faux curiosity.

"Of course I'm a real pirate! Haven't you ever heard of Buggy the Immortal Clown?" He asked standing up to pose dramatically.

"No. Is that you then?" The kid asked and started eating the mango next. "I've never met anyone immortal before. Does it hurt?"

"Why would immortality hurt?" Buggy demanded.

"Because you'd never die no matter how bad something hurt you." The kid suggested causing Buggy to shudder in fear.

"Kids shouldn't think such scary things. Who are you anyway, brat?"

"Medaka."

"Well Medaka - it isn't smart to just stoll up to a pirate party on the beach - a brat like you ought to be scared and run away from pirates - not towards them." Buggy scolded, trying to sound menacing before curiosity overrode his plan. "What are you doing on a cursed island all by yourself anyway?"

"My crew isn't scared of any curse! I'm a pirate too, you know." Medaka argued.

"Really? You're a pirate?" Buggy asked, showing his complete disbelief in his tone and expression, "You and your little friends shouldn't be playing pirates so far from home or you'll run into real pirates who'd rather shoot you than talk to you. You're lucky I'm not interested in crushing brats for no reason. (Even if you do have red hair.)"

Medaka scowled at him and said, "I'm a real pirate apprentice, you know! I may be just an apprentice but my captain thinks I'll be a super pirate one day. I'm going to find seven treasures here first so don't look down on me, ya hear?"

This mention of treasure peaked Buggy's interest. He knew there was supposed to be a treasure on this island but didn't know anything specific, just in case it was too tempting for him to go after. Since he was already on the island though he might as well learn what it was and so faux innocently he asked, "Seven Treasures did you say?"

Medaka eyed Buggy with slight suspicion for a split second (before hiding a mischievous grin) and said, "Yeah, we stopped here to go treasure hunting today and I was told of seven treasures there are here to find. One each as red as ruby, orange as amber, yellow as gold, green as jade, blue as sapphire and purple as alexandrite, and most important of all: a six colored treasure that is five times the worth of either ruby or jade alone."

Buggy looked towards the cursed jungle and made a pitiful sound of longing. (Being cursed would be worth something like that, right?) Medaka finally dropped her plate and stood to face the jungle, "It was interesting meeting you Mr Buggy but I'm already way behind my captain and crew and need to catch up before they beat me to the treasures. It's finders keepers when it comes to treasure finding, isn't that right?"

"Hold up brat." Buggy ordered before she could leave and Medaka had to hide her grin as he turned to his skeleton crew (who were still cheerful and drunk themselves) and said, "Men. Hold guard over our ship. This little pirate brat has never gone looking for treasure and is treasure hunting for the first time in a cursed forest. Does this brat have a chance at succeeding? I don't think so. But I happen to be the best pirate at treasure hunting in this entire sea. So in exchange for a simple very low(*actually high*) finders fee I'll be imparting my skills to the next generation. You all stay here."

"Aye aye Captain Buggy!" His skeleton crew called back enthusiastically as Buggy walked into the jungle with the kid.

"You'll really help me learn how to look for treasure?" Medaka asked excitedly.

"Of course! I've done a lot of treasure hunting in my life so we'll get those seven treasures for sure. Just listen to what I have to tell you - got it, you brat?" Buggy ordered.

"Of course! I'll even let you keep the really good stuff when we're done looking if you want." Medaka offered and Buggy ignored the shot to his heart that asked why he was taking advantage of a kid's innocence by squashing it flat. It was better the kid learn about pirate betrayal from someone somewhat nice like him rather then some other scum of the seas. Even if the kid went crying to his captain he was sure he could take the other captain out to boot. Plus if the kid was a good student he could be inclined to take him on as his own pirate apprentice.

"Now the first lesson in searching for treasure is to look for unusual landmarks to get your bearings -" Buggy said as he began his lesson while Medaka paid close attention to what he said.

* * *

Dawn, while using her monkey lure, had very quickly come across a group of clownish pirates who were tromping around the jungle and being loud and destructive as they searched for a thief of some kind.

The largest and chubbiest one was wearing a blue jester style hat with white bells on the ends. Another, skinnier, shirtless one wore a pointed, orange and red striped hat, with a white ball on the top. The third average sized one was wearing a panda hat and finally the last one was wearing a dark blue bandana.

The four of them had come up with the brilliant plan of using actual treasure to bait a trap for the thief which Dawn saw were three very overflowing crates and plain looking boxes. She dropped both her lures onto one of the crates and acted out being a pair of curious monkeys as she picked at and around the treasure.

"Are those green monkeys?" The pirate in panda hat asked as he watched the curious primates get attracted to the shiny things in the open treasure crate.

"They're kind of cute, right? Maybe if I catch one of them I could keep it as a pet before 'ol Mohji gets to it." The pirate with the striped orange and red hat said, looking at Dawn's monkey lure with adoration in his expression.

Dawn ignored him and used her first lure to pick up a gold coin and stuffed it into her mouth. It was pretty nice - about 95 percent gold, and 5 percent of silver in order to give it a bit of rigidity. The blue bandanna wearing pirate aggressively hit her away from the treasure chest though and shouted, "Hey! Don't let them touch any of the treasure! Captain Buggy will kill us if he finds out we lost any of his treasure - even if we are using it for bait right now."

Dawn scowled up at the pirate who hit her and purposefully approached the treasure chest again to poke at it while staring him down. When the pirate drew his two swords and pointed them at her (even with the striped orange and red hat wearing pirate asking him not to hurt her) she decided to make his day go very badly while giving her beloved captain and crew a much more fun search.

Dawn, using both of her lures, reached into the treasure chest, grabbed a whole bunch of treasure and scurried up and away into a tree in order to go drop the shiny objects somewhere in the forest for one of the treasure hunters to find. The bandanna pirate chased after her lures in hot pursuit with a shout of fury. Dawn was satisfied and using the two lures interchangeably with each other began to make arrangements for a much more entertaining afternoon.

* * *

Who knew that a deserted jungle island could attract so many pirates to it? Nami had always pegged all pirates in her mind to be on a spectrum of those just as ruthless, greedy and wicked at heart as Arlong himself or else just as stupid and muscle headed as Hatchi. She had never met or encountered any pirate who had proved her wrong in the eight years she had been stealing treasure and money from them. The 'nice' pirates were always the worst because they were always either faking it or else were a puppet to someone who was even worse.

This pirate Luffy, who was happily wandering aimlessly around while picking up anything that he spotted with a splash of bright color like an idiot, was obviously the stupid muscle headed type.

The only reason she hadn't already ditched him by now was because he kept coming across loose gold coins and cut gems scattered in random areas of the jungle and kept handing them over to her without a single complaint or protest. When he passed her a thumb sized gemstone that she was positive was an emerald cut diamond she finally became fed up and curious enough to break her silence and ask.

"Why are you giving me this? Don't you even know how much it's worth?" Nami demanded as she waved the gem under his nose, causing him to go cross eyed as he looked at it.

"Less than this shell with six colors that I found." Luffy said as he proudly showed Nami an empty whelk shell that vividly blended from red at the lip all through the entire spectrum up to the spire which was purple. Nami privately admitted to herself that the shell was indeed pretty but definitely wasn't worth more than such a nice diamond.

"This diamond has to be worth at least 5,000 beris minimum and the shell is worth 1,000 beris at the most. What game are you playing at here?" Nami demanded.

"Treasure Tag." Luffy answered as he reached up into a tree and picked a shiny red fruit that looked like a grapefruit sized raspberry. "Red! Now I need something orange!"

Nami pressed a hand against her forehead and said, "Stealing that map is becoming less and less worth all this trouble..."

"Just another treasure map? That's boring." Luffy said before pulling off one of the round fruit protrusions and biting into it. He stuck his tongue out in disgust and as he puckered his lips and said, "Yuck - that's sour."

"It's a map to the Grand Line, actually. I want to sail there, steal as much as I can from pirates there and come back stupidly rich." Nami said, "I'll get in and out without any problems."

"Does that mean you know how to navigate?" Luffy asked, finally looking interested in what Nami was saying.

"Of course I know how to navigate! Don't look down on me because there aren't a lot of people who know more about navigation than I do." Nami said with confidence, "Especially since I love the sea."

"Wow that's great!" Luffy said pumping a fist into the air in his excitement (his other held the shell and sour fruit and so was already occupied) "My crew and me want to go to the grand line!"

"Really!?" Nami asked, excitedly since she hadn't encountered very many pirate crews around the East Blue who were actually interested in leaving the East Blue.

"Yeah. Hey, you can come join in as one of our crew. You can be our navigator! I'm sure you'll like everyone and love my ship!" Luffy offered.

"On a pirate crew? No way!" Nami refused instantly. "You are a pirate! Didn't I just tell you that I steal from pirates! I only like tangerines and money - especially gold."

Luffy scowled at her refusal and said, "No fair. Gold isn't worth that much anyway."

Nami rolled her eyes and said, "What a weird pirate you are. What could possibly be worth more than gold?"

Luffy stubbornly folded his arms and said, "Lots and lots of things. Dawn told me that since humans can't eat gold their desire of gold isn't really for the gold. It's for buying what it gives people: benefits and freedom. I see treasure everywhere even though most people just can't see it very well. Don't you treasure something even better than gold?"

Nami huffed and deciding to ignore Luffy's question said, "Being a pirate isn't a game you know. I hate pirates the most - they took the life of someone very dear to me."

Luffy looked like something (finally) clicked in his rubbery head and said, "Oh! You mean that kind of pirate. You're interesting. You aren't allowed to help me find something yellow!"

"Weren't you looking for something orange?" Nami asked.

"Nah! I'm good - I found it already." Luffy said with a shishishi and bounded further into the jungle with Nami still right behind feeling as though she had missed something.

* * *

Zoro felt that he was making great strides forward in his training but no matter how much stronger or how precise he was in his technique he still couldn't cut all the way through the real chain that had once been used to hold him down - steel.

'I've pushed myself so hard and for so long. I've been to the brink of death a hundred times so what is it that I'm lacking?' Zoro wondered to himself as he ran faster down the edge of the shore swinging his blades through the air as he went. How could he make cutting through steel as seamless as cutting through air?

Zoro almost didn't notice the group of pirates who were partying on the beach but seeing as he nearly tripped over one who was fallen-down drunk he reoriented himself and wondered where he'd ended up. Hadn't Ann said the island was deserted? These guys must have just arrived.

"H-hey it's a new guy! Pull up a seat, join the party and grab a drink, pal!" One of the pirates urged as he handed Zoro a bottle filled with some alcohol that was probably sake of some kind based on the scent.

"Thanks." Zoro said as he took the free alcohol and within moments smoothly drank it down to the last drop before he looked around the revelry and asked, "What's the party for?"

"For the captain's triumphant capture of the thief and our future cabin boy!" The pirate cheered.

Zoro looked at the cheerful drunk and said, "A cabin boy? Our crew just got a cabin girl so maybe they'll meet up and play the treasure hunting game together."

Another pirate drunkenly laughed and said, "Oh yeah! The kid we found was brass as hell and just walked up to captain Buggy without a care and told him about the treasure in the jungle."

"Captain took the kid into the forest and is showing him the ropes." The first pirate agreed, "He was a good kid. He'll be a feisty lil' guy - redheads usually are ya know."

"A red head?" Zoro said, "Was this 'little guy' named Medaka by any chance?"

"Medaka? Yeah, that was it." The second pirate agreed before he took another gulp of his drink and said, "Of course if the kid is an idiot and says anything about Captain's you-know-what instead of recruiting him Captain'll definitely murder the kid instead."

"Yeah."

"That's true."

"I'll drink to that truth." The pirates agreed with each other.

Upon realizing Zoro had vanished without them seeing where he had gone the pirate who had invited him to join in the festivities said, "Hey, I wonder where my new pal went? Maybe to get more drinks?"

* * *

Buggy was having a really great time all things considered! Not only was the jungle apparently not-as-deadly as he thought it would be but the kid was a real quick study in the ways of treasure hunting.

The kid was one of the luckiest brats Buggy had ever encountered in his life. The kid's idea of 'treasure' was sad really as he was climbing trees to collect colorful empty bird eggs, digging up fluorescent bright flowers and was finding seashells in all shapes, sizes and colors. Buggy had been thinking the kid was a lost cause but Medaka was also finding egg shaped rubies sitting in the nests, gold coins amongst the flowers, and assorted cut gems among the shells.

Buggy would've already been moved to do something unspeakable due to jealous rage if the kid hadn't also just been handing him the shining real treasures without a care in the world. Buggy could already imagine using the kid to look for treasure in all the rumored treasure filled areas around the sea and come up in the end of it all stupidly rich!

What Buggy hadn't expected was to run into four of his men who were dragging a bloodied and groaning Mohji with them while being chased by Richie.

"Down Richie!" Buggy ordered and swatted Richie across the nose, startling the lion into compliance before he turned to Mohji and growled, "Mohji! Don't tell me that little thief got the drop on you!"

"I'm so sorry Captain Buggy." Mohji groaned in a mixture of pain and embarrassment. "She must have lead us to this island as a trap. I ran into two of her lackys - a bird woman and a green bush man who attacked me when I went after them to find out where the thief was hiding."

"A thieves guild!? Of course! A mere thief couldn't have just stolen from me it must've been a whole group!" Buggy said in realization and gritted his teeth. "It's even worse than bounty hunters! Those thieves! I'll kill all of them! Mohji! Go back to the ship and fill all the cannons with Buggy Balls! At my signal we're going to send this entire thief island stronghold straight to hell!"

Thinking quickly (and assuming that the 'bird woman' and 'green bush-man' meant Ann and Zoro) Medaka raised her hand and said, "Captain Buggy! Will you let me go and see the cannons? Our ship doesn't have one so I'd like to see how one is used."

"Of course, my boy!" Buggy said with a clownish laugh. "Mohji! You show Medaka here the power of the Buggy Balls and keep an eye on him while I find where those damned thieves are hiding!"

Mohji scowled over at Medaka with unhidden contempt and protested, "But Captain- you know I'm not great with kids. Why are you with a little brat anyway? He could be a spy!"

Medaka purposefully ignored him and instead allowed her eyes to show excitement as she turned to look closer at the gigantic lion with a pale pink mane that was sitting calmly now next to Mohji and said, "Your lion is so cool, Captain Buggy! You just swatted him once and he listened to you! Can I feed him, please?"

"Gya-ha-ha-ha! Of course, my boy. Richie likes fish and beef so give him some of this pike jerky my chef made." Buggy chortled and handed Medaka a handful of fish jerky (It was great to see that the kid knew who the boss of his entire crew was - including the animals).

"But captain! I'm the one who feeds Richie!" Mohji complained and scowled when Medaka reached her hand up to Richie's mouth to feed him the treat while she scratched at his ear at the same time with her second hand. Richie chuffed in absolute rapture over the attention he was recieving and liked up the treat he was offered in a split second.

"Well it's about time you learned how to share your responsibilities with someone who I'm sure will be a fantastic cabin boy for the crew. You make sure to teach him how to load my special cannons properly now - he needs a few more lessons about being a pirate. Now get going you two - I have a den of thieves to find."

Medaka was thankful these pirates weren't very bright. She would do what she could to keep her crew from getting hurt by unexpected cannon bombardment. Medaka was lifted by the back of her neck and placed on the giant lion by Mohji who begrudgingly acknowledged his captain's order and said, "Of course, captain! Come on brat we've got a cannon to prepare to fire and I've got a lesson or two for you."

* * *

The so-called island guardian was still diligently guarding Ann's every move. She scowled and twitched a bit when she heard the sound of distant shooting and unintelligible shouting going off in different directions.

"Shouldn't you be off scaring more people away from those rare animals of yours? I thought you were supposed to be the 'Island Guardian'." Ann suggested falsely calmly, feeling frustrated and trapped.

There was a long pause before the island guardian began to run off cursing under his breath before he shouted back and said, "Don't move from that spot girl! I've got friends to protect!"

After the Island Guardian was gone for a full minute and Ann was certain he wasn't returning any time soon she cradled the duck-turtle, whose breathing was more laboured than she thought ought to be healthy, closer to herself and began to recite a spell while gently petting it's soft feathery head.

She removed one of Balloon's magically imbued feathers out from the shoulder of her pajamas but as it was an older feather it didn't have as much extra power and as a minor side effect her eyes softly glowed white while she used her magic and spoke her spell. "Your wings be torn and are Weltering in Blood - Blood, stop and let these wings be healed. Your wings be torn and are Weltering in Blood - Blood, stop and let these wings be healed. Your wings be torn and are Weltering in Blood - Blood, stop and let these wings be healed."

She repeated the spell three times to get as much power into it as possible since she was hoping that the little hybrid was bird enough for the broken wing spell to heal it. She was completely surprised however when something extra happened.

A white light shone around the duck-turtle, the spell working to try and fix what was broken. Once it was over though she immediately winced in embarrassment because apparently the duck-turtle had just enough of its own magic that its magic reacted with hers and transformed its shell from turtleish to a hybrid turtle-beetle type shell with a split down the middle that would protect its new fully functional set of bird wings like armor.

Ann hadn't done an accidental transfiguration in years. At least there was good news in that the duck-turtle was now fully healed and wouldn't be dying anytime soon from her injury.

"I know what you are!" A man's voice accused from just inside the clearing.

There was also the unfortunate bad news that she had a witness to her performing magic who wasn't one of her crewmates.

A somewhat tall man with darker green hair than Zoro's in an unusual half-shaved hairstyle was staring intently at Ann with an expression that made her break into a cold sweat. He took a step forward and the six men behind him followed suit. Ann's eyes darted around looking for a viable escape route - this guy was possibly a witch-hunter or something more horrible.

"You! You're a siren aren't you?" The guy said sounding sure of his assessment.

The comment lessened Ann's fight, flight or freeze response just a tiny bit. A siren?

One of the men with the dark green haired guy echoed her inner confusion as he said, "I thought siren was another word for a mermaid though? She doesn't look like a mermaid."

"You fool. Mermaids are in the sea but sirens are in the sky. My beautiful dove, it was fate that has brought our paths together. I am Cabaji, a simple and poor pirate but if I could have but a single kiss from you I would die the richest pirate of all." The pirate Cabaji talked as he walked closer and by the time he had finished speaking he was only two feet in from of where Ann stood still, now frozen in mortification.

Cabaji reached his hand out, intending to take Ann's in order to pull her in to kiss but his hand movement finally triggered the fight response in Ann. With a loud shriek to cover how red-hot she was blushing she grabbed Cabaji's outstretched arm and, with the duck-turtle still tucked under her other arm, yanked him up and over her shoulder, throwing him into the trunk of a tree as she shouted, "Feather Sleep!"

As he slumped over in unconsciousness she turned and ran away into the jungle without a single glance behind. The six underlings didn't move for a moment as they waited for Cabaji to get up but he laid still as a statue until the silence was broken by his distinct snore. The takeaway from the event that the men with Cabaji arrived at?

"Sirens sure are scarier than mermaids, aren't they?"

"You've got that right."

* * *

"Shishishishi - look at this funny looking rabbit." Luffy said even as he picked up a long, fluffy white furred snake with rabbit ears to show it off to Nami who herself was watching as a fox with a rooster's tail, comb, and waddle made an odd mixture of hiss and crowing noise at her while it seemed to glaring intimidatingly at her.

"Weird is right but it looks more like a weird snake than a weird rabbit to me." Nami replied. "And take a look at this fox with rooster feathers."

Luffy pointed at a large pig with the mane of a lion and with an excited laugh he said, "Look at that funny looking lion! What a cool island."

"Lion!? That's just some strange breed of pig isn't it?" Nami retorted. "There's something odd going on with this island and I'm starting to think that it isn't a curse."

"DO NOT COME ANY FURTHER!" A loud voice that seemed to surround them ordered thunderously. Luffy and Nami reacted in much different manners.

Luffy simply looked up into the sky and said, "Huh? Are you a plant like Dawn?"

Nami, on the other hand, spun on her heel in a slight panic and shouted, "Who said that? Where are you?"

"I...AM THE GUARDIAN OF THE FOREST! THE GOD OF THIS ISLAND!"

"The god of this island?" Luffy asked out loud sounding confused, still looking up into the many branches of the trees above him.

"THAT'S RIGHT! IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIFE, YOU'LL LEAVE THIS PLACE AT ONCE! Oh, by the way - kid with the straw hat. Are you a pirate?"

"That's right." Luffy answered, still twisting his head back and forth while he tried to figure out where the voice was coming from.

"I knew you seemed like a pirate!" The voice of the forest guardian said, sounding less and less imposing the longer he talked.

"Why would an island guardian god even need to ask that? Aren't most gods supposed to be omnipotent?" Nami asked suspiciously.

"I don't like your tone, lass. Listen up. If either one of you takes one more step into my jungle you'll have to face my judgment."

Luffy scoffed at the voice's threat and said, "Like I care, why are you even asking all this? This guy is very weird."

"What did you say, straw-hatted boy?"

"I think there's something wrong with you." Luffy said bluntly and began to walk in the direction the voice seemed to be coming from, "I think I can see you over here."

Shouting once more the voice boomed, "I WARNED YOU NOT TO COME ANY CLOSER! NOW YOU MUST FACE THE JUDGEMENT OF THE ISLAND!"

Bang!

"Ahhhh!" Nami's voice screamed as the bullet hit Luffy in the forehead with enough force that he toppled over head over heels, dropping his multicolored treasures over the ground as he did so.

He laid still for a split second before he spang back onto his feet, completely unscathed and glared in the direction where the shot had come from. Feeling irritated he glared into the forest and yelled, "Hey you jerk! You made me drop my treasures!"

"Wh-what the hell are you?"

"I'm a rubber man. I ate a devil's fruit." Luffy said, demonstrating this fact in his usual way by sticking a finger into the corner of his mouth and stretching his face two feet to the side and letting it snap back into place.

"A devil's fruit? That's impossible! Back when I was a pirate, I'd only ever heard rumors about them."

"When you were a pirate?"

"N-no way, I'm not reminiscing about the past - you are." The guardian of the island accused.

"I don't care about talking about the past. You're the one who's talking about it. Oh, there you are." Luffy said and walked purposefully towards the odd looking human-plant that he spotted.

Having realized Luffy was onto him and had indeed spotted him, the guardian of the island stood up and tried to run away. In his haste to do so though he accidently knocked himself over his own two feet and tumbled down onto his back.

At this point he snarled and said, "Shut up you! Help me up!"

"Don't get so angry." Luffy said as he walked over and helped him back onto his feet, thinking the island guardian was weird but funny.

"I'll forgive you today." The bush haired man in a box conceded.

"This is the first time I've seen a man who lives in a box. Are you a boxer?" Luffy asked.

The island guardian nodded solemnly and thinking of his backstory gravely replied, "Of course. Since I was a little boy I've been in traini-THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE! I can't even get out of this box. I'm Gaiman. I've lived stuck in this box for 20 years. Look at how my hair and beard have grown. Even my eyebrows have joined. It's hard for me to tell the pirates from the poachers. Are you the captain of the blue haired lass who tried to help one of my friends?"

"Ann? Yeah, she's my lookout. She's good with birds. I've got five other crewmates: Dawn, the best ship in the world. Balloon, a really smart bird. Zoro, a swordsman who uses three swords. Medaka, our fun new pirate apprentice, and Nami, our new navigator. Hey… where is Nami anyway? She was just here." Luffy counted out on his fingers as he proudly revealed his crew one by one. A whole hand of nakama now, how amazing was that!

"The ginger haired lass you were here with? She ran off as soon as I shot you (not that shooting you worked anyway)."

"Ah! I should go after her then. I wish I had something to carry my treasures with in case I need to fight again." Luffy said as he turned, intending to go after her. (He couldn't win the game if she wasn't with him after all.)

He heard a rustling noise followed by a soft barely audible thump noise as a vine woven sack landed at his feet.

"Here." Gaimon said, turning his face away from Luffy in embarrassment. "Have it as a token of apology for shooting you in the face."

"Shishishishi! It didn't hurt me but thanks anyway." Luffy said and snatched it up before moving to look for his coolest treasure he had found today, Gaimon trailing behind him out of curiosity over the odd rubber pirate boy.

* * *

Zoro had only ever been interested in going after one specific pirate. He had never called himself a bounty hunter and he hadn't created the nickname "Pirate Hunter" for himself either.

It had been the people in the bounty offices and other hunters who had started calling him that when he became known for nearly exclusively bringing in pirates instead of bandits, thieves or counterfeiters who tended to be easier to catch. He had only started bringing them in so he could afford to buy some food, drink or transport as he traveled. The only thing that mattered to him during a fight was whether the person fighting him used a sword or not and more often than not it was pirates as a whole who used swords to fight.

It was pure chance that had him coming across another one of the clownishly dressed pirates from the other crew in an open clearing who appeared to be looking for something. This one was the most clownish of all the pirates he'd seen so far. A slim blue-haired man with a big, red nose on his face. Aside from the red nose his face was also covered with face paint: a set of crossbones going down his face forming an X and exaggerated red lipstick.

Before Zoro could even say anything though the clown pirate grabbed a handful of knives, holding the handles between his fingers in a fist, and began accusing him of nonsense.

"You're one of the thieves hiding out on this island, aren't you!" Buggy accused, feeling confident about his assumption.

"I'm not a thief, I'm a pirate." Zoro denied before continuing. "I'm looking for Medaka, our pirate apprentice. She came in here with the captain of you clown pirates a while ago."

Buggy nodded his head and in a weak attempt to spook the other pirate from searching too hard for Medaka said, "So you're not one of the thieves? Good, good. This is a cursed island I've heard. No one in their right mind would come here."

Zoro wasn't phased though and asked, "Well then why did you guys come to this island if you think it's cursed?"

"We were robbed of course. We wouldn't even be here if it weren't for that." Buggy snarled with irritation.

"It doesn't matter anyway. Before I go will you tell me if you've seen a kid with red hair anywhere?" Zoro asked.

"No." Buggy lied. "This island is a robber's den crawling with thieves all over. My crew must've been mistaken about a kid coming in here with me. Who knows where a kid could've ended up. "

"Well if you don't know I'm sure whoever robbed you knows." Zoro said as he began to leave.

Buggy froze a moment before he hissed, "Hold it right there and repeat what you just said."

Feeling impatient Zoro huffed and replied, "I said, I'm sure whoever robbed you knows."

"You said it again! Rubber nose!" An angry vein appeared on Buggy's forehead as he snarled. "You're saying you think my nose looks funny? That it looks fake!?"

"I never said that but now that you mention it..." Zoro peered at Buggy in silence for a moment. "Yes, it does look fake."

With that statement the short fuse attached to Buggy's even shorter temper burnt down to nothing and with a scream of rage he moved to attack Zoro using rapid slashes with the knives he held in his hand. "Prepare to die you emerald idiot! Your crime of insulting me won't go unpunished!"

Zoro, always ready and able to battle (unless sleeping and even then he might be able to manage it), easily evaded the attack. Retaliating nearly instantly, with a quick sweeping motion, he focused a strike upon the wrist of the hand Buggy held his knives in and severed it completely and cleanly from the rest of his arm.

The hand landed with a thud somewhere on the ground behind Zoro while he focused his attention back on the clown pirate. The expression on his face as he stared at his new stump was not exactly fearful, but instead a tiny bit more manic. Maybe he was going into shock?

"You've lost a hand and if you continue to attack me you'll lose your life as well." Zoro warned as he looked down the blade of his unnamed sword at the other pirate.

The clown, instead of backing down or retreating in fear, smiled instead before letting out a hearty laugh, "You're trying to say I'll lose my life fighting a swordsman? Gya-ha-ha-ha-ha! What a joke! One sword? Ten? Even a hundred swords would never be enough to kill me and you want to know why - you bumpkin of a swordsman?"

Hot and sudden pain in four different spots struck his lower back, nearly severing his spine and puncturing his kidneys. Zoro staggered a bit but didn't fall. He craned his head to look behind himself. The hand that he had severed from the arm of that clown was floating in the air and had moved to strike him with a blow to his lower back.

The clownish pirate laughed again at Zoro's confused expression. "Gya-ha-ha-ha! You can try as much as you want but it's impossible for you to cut me. I'll never be hurt because I'm a Splitting Human who ate the Chop-Chop Fruit. I'm Captain Buggy the Immortal Clown, after all!"

Zoro, faced with a pirate who wouldn't be killed from being cut up, smiled back at Buggy but it was about as friendly as one attached to a shark going in for a meal. "So you say your name is Bug? Well that doesn't matter to me. I'm Roronoa Zoro and I'm going to be the World's Greatest Swordsman. There won't be anything in this world impossible for me to cut one day."

Buggy scoffed and began to egg Zoro on by saying, "Well even if you are the infamous Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro it's not possible for you to harm me today. So you've abandoned bounty hunting and have started a pirate crew? Once I kill you and everyone else on that little crew of yours I'll take that red-haired brat as my own apprentice- and of course I'll be a very strict master! Gya-ha-ha-ha!"

Zoro's eyes flashed like steel striking steel and with another feral smile he leveled his swords up again and said, "Well I'm not the captain but if you think I'll give up or let you hurt a single one of my crewmates you're even dumber than you look."

First he was working on the challenge of cutting through something like steel and now he had to fight someone specially made to be cut without getting hurt? What an interesting day he was having.

* * *

Nami tried to ignore the pangs of guilt she was still had from running away from Luffy the moment he had been shot. She had turned to run as soon as she saw Luffy's head jerk back from the force of the bullet that had been fired at him.

Bile threatened to ride up from her stomach though and she was simply grateful it was too empty to even dry heave thanks to being on the run for the last couple of days. Headshots would always make her ill thanks to what had happened to Bellemere that day. She forcibly buried that line of thought. (This was not the time to be scared and sad. She had to wait until everyone was safe before she could cry for herself.)

Nami was so preoccupied with running and mentally pulling herself back together though that she didn't notice until it was too late that another person was running straight at her from the opposite direction.

"Ahh! Watch out!" Nami heard before she slammed into something fast (and feathery?) causing both herself and the other person to fall over each other.

Nami painfully sat up and looked up when she heard the quacking of a duck. The other person had apparently tucked and rolled in order to avoid hurting the odd duck-turtle hybrid she carried. The outrageous costume the other girl was wearing immediately clued Nami into the fact that she was one of the clown pirates searching the jungle for her. Before she could get back up to run again though the other girl was already back on her feet.

She looked down at Nami with a surprised expression on her face and instead of attacking her held out a hand to help Nami get back on her feet. "I'm so sorry! Are you alright? I should've been paying more attention to where I was running."

Nami eyed the hand reached out to help her and then back up into the eyes of the pirate. There didn't seem to be any sign on insincerity or hidden malice in her expression (another airheaded pirate, what luck she was having today!) so Nami carefully reached out and took the offered hand.

"Thank you. What were you running away from anyway?" Nami asked.

The other girl, caught off guard by the question flushed a bit and said, "It was nothing- I mean it wasn't anything scary- just embarrassing. I really don't want to talk about it."

"More embarrassing than walking around in that carnival costume?" Nami asked and tried to stifle her smile when the other girl blushed harder and tried to hide her face behind the duck-turtle she was holding.

"I really don't want to talk about how that happened either, why were you running?" The blue haired girl lowered the duck-turtle and peered at Nami to study her closer. "Oh! You have orange hair." (Ann realized this must've be the thief that other guy had mistaken her for.)

"I prefer tangerine if you must use a fruit description." Nami bantered playfully back. "My name's Nami by the way, who are you?"

In order to settle her frazzled nerves Ann began to carefully pet down the turtle-duck's feathery head, against the grain of the feathers causing her to clatter her bill together in a pleased sounding buzz. Ann then took a breath and introduced herself in return. "I'm Ann - just Ann. Were you trying to go somewhere? I'll try to help you if you need it. You should be careful on this island, there are pirates going around looking for a thief. Some of those morons will definitely be too aggressively dumb and would, without a moment of hesitation, attack an innocent girl wandering around on her own, you see."

Nami mentally cooed over the girl pirate's complete naivety in trying to warn her away from the island to safety while Ann wondered if the thief in front of her would even bother to realize Ann was hinting at the fact that Ann knew she was a thief.

An idea quickly flashed through Nami's mind and like the opportunist she was immediately seized onto it. With a bright and friendly smile she said, "Actually now that you brought it up... if you don't mind would you join me in a quick trip back to the beach? There's safety in numbers like you said and I left something behind out on the beach where some of the pirates landed. I don't know if they're ones you know or not though. Things might get a little dangerous for the both of us if we go. Can you a handle yourself in a fight if someone tries to catch us?"

Ann had to admit to herself that Nami was an interesting person. Did she really intend to return to the ship of the pirates who were actively hunting her down for robbing them in order to presumably steal even more stuff from them? Ann couldn't even imagine being that gutsy if she didn't have Balloon or magic (or more recently her new crew) backing her up.

"I'll be fine in a fight, but I'll warn you right now that I won't ever hurt a child or bird - even if I'd be killed for it." Ann's eyes sharpened and she leveled an even gaze towards Nami. "That won't be a problem with you, will it?"

Nami's smile softened a touch, becoming more genuine, before she said, "Not a problem at all. While we go you can tell me how in the world you ended up on such a weird pirate crew. You seem so normal."

Ann huffed in exasperation and walked beside Nami as they headed off towards the clown crew's pirate ship. "Is it that obvious that I'm a pirate already? I admit I never went through my life intending to be a pirate, but my captain ended up helping rescue my best friend and I when we were captured by an even worse pirate a few weeks ago. My crew is pretty unusual I'll admit, one of the weirdest things is my captain ate a devil fruit and turned into a rubber person so that's definitely unique for an East Blue pirate crew."

"A devil fruit? I thought those were a myth. If he helped you and this friend of yours though what was it that stopped you from going back home?" Nami had to ask, wondering how such a fluffy brained girl could've survived being on a pirate crew even if it was only for a few weeks so far.

"I don't really have a home to go back to so I figure it wouldn't be so bad considering how awful a lot of pirates can be. My captain's fun to be around though even if he does tend to act childish a lot of the time."

The duck-turtle let out a loud quack and Ann's eyes lit up when she spotted what had caught the odd bird's interest. She lengthened out her stride in order to walk a little bit faster with Nami trailing behind her for just a moment before moving to match her stride to walk beside her again.

'Well that at least finally explains the costume,' Nami thought to herself with a grin and watched curiously as Ann walked over to a patch of unbroken sunlight shining down from a break in the trees around them. There growing like it was being fed from the light, was a tall shrub that was fully blooming with bunches of flowers all clustered together in bunches. Red, orange, yellow, teal, blue and purple with deep emerald green leaves and stems that grew bound together like they were naturally occuring rainbow bouquets.

There was a touch of awe in Anns voice as she softly spoke up. "I can't believe it. It's really a six colored flower. I've never seen a plant so pretty when in bloom before."

Nami aggressively buried the memory of a brightly smiling pirate showing her a rainbow colored shell and instead said, "It is a pretty flower, isn't it? You should pick off a branch to keep as a memory for later. Sneaking past pirates will be hard work and hard work deserves a reward, right?"

Ann smiled back at Nami and said, "You're absolutely right."

* * *

Dawn had been having a good bit of fun so far on the island, using her two capuchin lures to tease the clownish pirates who were still completely intent on chasing after her. She hadn't expected for her capuchin lures to be ambushed though when a second group of clownish pirates came up from ahead, cutting off her escape. The leader was a sword wielding unicycle riding fellow with an unfortunate looking haircut.

"Cabaji! Get those monkeys! They stole some of Captain Buggy's treasure!" One of the pirates chasing her shouted.

The unicycle pirate was quick to react to the shout of his crewmate and using some sort of secret circus technique he blew out a stream of fire like a dragon - completely roasting her lures to complete destruction in the process. Apparently not all these pirates were ineffectual as subordinates like the last group of pirates they had encountered had been.

Offshore where Dawn had been anchored with Balloon keeping her company up in her crow's nest she raised her anchor and adjusted her sails in order to move out and scout the shoreline for the other pirate's landing. She figured that Luffy, Ann and Zoro would be able to handle themselves without a lure getting in their way but she wanted to keep an eye on Medaka who, from what she had last seen from up in the canopy, had been traveling with a large lion and a man in a horrible looking fur coat towards the shore where the other pirate ship would likely be anchored.

* * *

"Hey - you fire breathing baldy! Don't set my friends on fire!" Luffy shouted at Cabaji as he entered the clearing with Gaimon trailing at his heels, just as Cabaji had finished off roasting Dawn's lures.

Cabaji pointed his sword at Luffy and said, "You! You're that rude straw hat thief! You say those where your pets? They got what they deserved then!"

"The green monkeys were the pets of a thief? No wonder they were able to steal so much of Captain Buggy's treasure from us." The lead Fuwa acrobat blurted as he finally realized the truth.

"What did you say was stolen!?" Cabaji demanded as he turned angrily towards the four Fuwa acrobats, causing them to tremble and falter under his cold accusing glare.

"Captain Buggy's treasure," the Fuwa in the bandana admitted, "We were borrowing some of it to be used for thief bait."

"Ooooh - yellow, green, AND blue. How lucky." Luffy's voice interrupted as he looked in one of the open treasure boxes and picked out a gold coin, an emerald and a blue sapphire and stuffed them in the vine woven pouch Gaimon had given him to hold onto his treasures. "I only need to find a purple treasure now."

"Hey you! I'm not through with you! Give those back right now!" Cabaji demanded as he pointed his sword at Luffy again. "How dare you steal from the Buggy Pirates!"

"What? I didn't steal from any pirates." Luffy denied seemingly brazingly. "I just took these out from a box that was left open. Finders keepers - so there."

There was a long beat of incredulous silence on Cabaji's part before he smacked himself across the forehead in exasperation and said, "This kid is a moron. You may have caught me off guard earlier but this time I'm going to kill you!"

"Yeah! Get him Cabaji! We'll take care of the green freak with him!" The Fuwa in the pointed, orange and red striped hat cheered as he pointed his own sword at Gaimon, who broke into a nervous sweat.

"Hey now - you leave me out of this. Your squabble with straw hat doesn't have anything to do with me."

"Even if that was true this has been a bad day for us and we need someone to take our frustrations out on - so it might as well be you." The large Fuwa in the blue jester hat jeered as he pointed his own sword at Gaimon.

Gaimon scowled at the foolish (Poachers? Bounty hunters? Traveling circus troupe?) men who were underestimating him just because of his circumstances and took out his revolver to show he wasn't a pushover. "I am the Guardian of the Island and I won't be brought down by fools like you."

The four Fuwas charged in but their movements were too slow to reach Gaimon. The blades of swords tried to slash and stab at him. Swiftly Gaimon's pistol shot out and with a short yelp, the Fuwa in a panda hat staggered back, holding onto his bleeding forearm. The striped-hat wearing one, leaped over like a panther and using his sword, knocked Gaimon back - intending for him to land on his back.

His gun clattered across the ground and now defenceless Gaimon raised his hands in defiance - willing to fight for his life for the sake of his island.

It didn't come to that, however when the four Fuwa's were forced away when they were assaulted by a herd of animals that came caterwauling into the clearing. When the four Fuwas reformed they stared in astonishment at the large gathering across from them.

A vanguard of animals were now surrounding Gaimon as they stood up to defend him. They hissed, snarled, howled and growled at the clownish men. The odd creatures seemed endless and strange and included giraffe-dogs, duck-poodles, bear-tigers, zebra-ostriches, hippo-gorillas, panda-bats, platypus-sheep, rhino-kangaroos, tiger-elephants, cow-tortices, peacock-cats, crow-snakes, gorilla-bears, elephant-mice, lion-boars, rooster-foxes, tiger-horses and even ducks-turtles.

The animals bared their teeth collectively towards the Fuwas who simultaneously took a step backward. There sure were a lot of angry looking animals now.

Cabaji in the meantime instead of fighting Luffy head on like he had the last time decided to use his underhanded tactics this time. He began to spin his sword around rapidly, forming a dense cloud of dust and shouted, "Murder at the Steambath!"

Luffy twisted right, left and above, trying to figure out where the attack would be coming from when a sudden stream of fire rushed towards him, enveloping him as Cabaji shouted, "Breath of Death!"

Smelling the scent of singed straw once again Luffy scowled and patted out the embers as he shouted, "You stupid baldy! I told you not to hurt my hat!"

"And I told you this time I'm going to kill you - who cares about a stupid hat!" Cabaji shouted and as the smoke began to clear unleashed a hundred spinning tops towards Luffy and shouted, "Dance of 100 Kamikaze Tops!"

Luffy easily dodged the barrage of toys but let out a yelp when they began to pop and explode at his feet since Cabaji had put explosives in them beforehand. Luffy escaped the burning attack and as he looked around to reorient himself in the haze from the smoke didn't spotted Cabaji speeding with his unicycle up a tree. Cabaji then ricocheted off of the top of the tree, high into the air and after flipping in the air twice pointed his sword down at Luffy - intending to stab him into the ground.

Luffy (spotting him as he came down though) rounded on him as he got close and punched Cabaji across the face, extending his fist out and out and out up until Cabaji finally hit a tree, and snapping his arm back with a crack shouted, "Rifle Shot! Take that you stupid baldy!"

Knocked free from his unicycle and now in a daze Cabaji pointed at Luffy rudely and accused, "Your arm stretched!"

"So what? You used exploding toys." Luffy retorted and reared his fist back, intending to punch Cabaji again, but was interrupted by a loud ruckus spilling into the clearing.

The shouting, clanging of metal-on-metal, and chaotic mishmash of swifter than the eye sword swings and flying body parts that was Zoro and Buggy fighting come into the clearing like a tornado of destruction.

Trees were felled by Zoro's sword and would be pulped to bits by Buggy's hands full of braces of long sharpened knives.

"It's the captain!" One of the Fuwa's cheered before he yelped and ducked one of the crushed trees heading in his direction.

"Hawk Wave!" Zoro called out as he struck with his swords, creating a howling gust of wind strong enough to knock the Fuwa Acrobats and Cabaji's subordinates completely over like they were in a gale.

Zoro crossed his two swords across his chest and placed his third blade in his mouth horizontally behind them. "Rice Ball!" Zoro rushed toward Buggy and cuts through the jeering clown who simply fell to harmless pieces and reformed behind him.

"Still using those useless swords, Roronoa Zoro! You might as well melt them all to slag and throw that at me! Then you might actually beat me! Gya-ha-ha-ha!"

"Tiger Hunt!" Zoro relentlessly put his hand swords over the blade of his mouth and rushed forth a forward while simultaneously performing a descending slash with them.

"Get him Zoro! You can beat him!" Luffy shouted his encouragement from the sidelines.

Zoro grinned ferally and went to move in again but was halted unexpectedly by hands that grabbed his ankles, pinning him into place and leaving him open to Buggy's assault.

"I've got him, Captain! Now's your chance!" Cabaji shouted, his hands around Zoro's ankle's like a vice grip.

"Don't you dare interfere in their fight, baldy!" Luffy snarled and with a somewhat vicious grin kicked away Cabaji who scrambled to escape his vicious stomping.

Once he was out of range from Zoro and was positioned in front of his subordinates Luffy grinned and stretched his arms further and further back until it felt right. "Rubber Bazooka!"

Luffy's arms snapped back out and it swept Cabaji, the Fuwas and the rest of the mishmash of minions high - high - high into the air before they vanished, landing somewhere on a tier of the island far below them. Luffy let out a whoop of delight and punching a fist into the air shouted in triumph. "I got 'em all!"

An idea switched on in Zoro's mind and he grinned viciously at Buggy, ready to fight again - this time without interference.

"Gya-ha-ha-ha! Well Roronoa - let's see if you have what it takes to cut me yet! I have all day and while I fight you my men will gladly storm the rest of this island to get rid of these pesky animals for me! Gahk!"

In the middle of his gloating Buggy was startled when he felt a blunt chain wrap itself around him, pinning his arms to his sides tightly. He didn't like the gleam in Zoro's steely gaze all too much. "Uh...Roronoa? This isn't a sword."

"Yes it is, Bug. A chain is just a flexible blade. Dragon Twister: Chain Style!" Zoro grabbed his end of the chain and began to spin it around - fast - faster. Soon the only thing that could be seen was a blur and the wind seemed to pick up, twisting fantastically until finally with as much force as he could generate Zoro loosened the chain from around Buggy and with a scream of terror Buggy went flying off in the same direction Cobaji and the other fodder had been sent by Luffy.

There was the sudden sound of a loud explosion and an even louder scream of pain cried out - echoing across the entire island.

Luffy let out a whoop of excitement and shouted, "I didn't know you could blow people up by throwing them hard enough."

"I didn't either." Zoro said and eyed his swords and chains suspiciously before deciding to think on it at a later time. (The wounds Buggy had given him seemed to be slowing their bleeding, he noticed. It seemed his wrapping his chains back around his haramaki was making a handy compression bandage together.) "I don't think that was me that caused the explosion though. It sounded like it came from the beach - let's go and check out what's going on down there Captain."

"Right! Let's go make sure those stupids don't try to hurt any more of Gaimon's friends! Right, Gaimon?"

The man in the box, nearly moved to tears over Luffy's willingness to help him and his friends, put on his game face and said, "Right! Let's get to it, straw hat!"

* * *

Mohji and Richie had made it back to the beach in good time with the other four pirates right behind them. Mohji next rousted the hungover skeleton crew on the beach into some semblance of a functioning gunnar battalion and sent Medaka to the 'important' job of fetching and carrying the Buggy Balls to each of the cannons on the deck of the ship.

Mohji regretted giving the kid the job when as Medaka passed beside him while carrying a Buggy Ball it 'slipped' from her hands and it dropped right on top of his right foot.

At his yelp of pain she immediately apologized. "Oh, I'm so sorry - it accidentally slipped out of my hands."

Reminding himself that the captain actually liked this little brat so he couldn't feed her to Richie yet he hissed through gritted teeth. "It's fine. Just be more careful - if those are too heavy get someone to help you."

"I can do it - just watch!" Medaka insisted and ran to the stockpile of Buggy Balls to grab another one. As she ran back though and approached Mohji again she 'stumbled' and dropped the ball again, crushing Mohji's left foot this time.

"Aargh! Watch out you little brat! I'll feed you to Richie if you do that again!" He snarled at Medaka who 'wilted' under his glare and nodded her head before rushing off to get a new ball again.

Medaka grabbed the third ball and once again focused on the current pirate supervisor, Mohji. As soon as she passed him again she quite intentionally 'accidentally' crushed his foot with a third dropped ball again.

Screaming in outrage (and pain) once again he grabbed Medaka from the back of her shirt and lifted her up to glare into her eyes as though she were a misbehaving pet. "What did I say!?"

"That you'll let me feed Richie if I did that again." Medaka repeated back, purposefully misremembering to irritate him further.

Mohji actually nodded along and with a menacing tone said, "THAT'S RIGHT YOU LITTLE BRAT! You'll feed Richie alright. Richie! Food!"

Mohji tossed Medaka down onto the deck at Richie's feet and when she spotted the rest of the crew conspicuously turning away from the soon to be gruesome scene didn't bother to hide herself rolling her eyes. The lion would be concerning if it didn't seem to be watching in curiosity instead of malicious intent. Medaka could see his whiskers twitch and he had been looking quite intently at her snack pouch since they had gone on deck and so enacted her somewhat haphazard plan.

Still flat on her back, she reached into her snack pouch and pulled out all the jerky she had on her and waved it under Richie's nose, immediately getting his attention. She quietly whispered, "I bet you're hungry big guy. Here, you can have this if you promise not to hurt me."

Richie, who was a lion whose thoughts mostly lingered on food and mutiny (and sometimes both), gladly accepted her terms and even nuzzled her palm while he licked up the tasty treat she had provided willingly to him.

"Good boy, Richie. You're the smartest one on the crew beside the captain, aren't you?" Medaka cooed and laughed when Richie nuzzled her for more treats. "Okay, okay. I can't fool your nose can I? Here have my last ones. You're the king of the jungle, aren't you? Then don't let that bully Mohji boss you around so much."

Medaka got back up and walked over to the stack of Buggy Balls again. This time she marched in front of Mohji (who was surprised to see the kid was unmaimed) and looking him straight in the eyes she dropped the Buggy Ball straight on his foot. As Mohji yelped in pain again with a deadpan expression she asked, "Trying to kill me with your lion? How lame. Aren't you supposed to be giving me a lesson like Captain Buggy told you?"

"Oh I'll give a lesson to you, you little brat." Mohji snarled at Medaka as her grabbed her by the arm and began to drag her aggressively towards the back of the ship. "Want some advise? If you annoy a pirate you'll be punished."

He wretched open the door to Buggy's captain's cabin and tossed her inside like a sack of flour before slamming the door shut and bolting it closed from the outside. "I'll let you out after the captain gets back so HE can deal with your nonsense, you little terror."

Medaka had been a little worried at first when Mohji spoke of punishment but once she looked around the cabin and found a window that could be opened she relaxed once more and began to explore the large cabin.

Buggy stuck to his circus aesthetic even in his personal quarters it seemed, as he apparently had even decorated his own room in the same style as the rest of his ship. There was a large vanity/desk with a very large mirror on one side of the room that was completely stacked with sponges, paintbrushes, and jars of paint in over a dozen colors and hues. He had a rigid hammock that was completely piled high with soft looking blankets and a wooden trunk painted with a red and white triangular circus pattern that could double as a step to get in and out of the bed without getting entangled.

Next to the hammock there was a statue of a bear dressed up as a clown balancing on top of a ball that acted as a hat stand for several differently colored captain's hats with Buggy's jolly roger painted on each one. There was a very large cabinet on one side of the room that was gilded with gold and inlaid with shining gemstones of many colors with a golden lock sealing it shut. A comparatively plain looking wooden wardrobe painted white that had carvings of elephants, bears, lions and other animals mirrored the ornate cabinet on the other side of the room.

Medaka, seeing there was no lock on his wardrobe, began to fully explore it and was delighted to find a collection of quite a few silk scarves, handkerchiefs and bandanas in over a dozen different colors. She helped herself in taking one bandana of each color she needed to win the game and folded them carefully before adding them into her quarter filled treasure collection pouch.

She contemplated going over to the fancy cabinet to fiddle with the lock but decided it would be best not to try to mess with it. Instead she made her way over to the trunk underneath Buggy's hammock and lifted it a tiny bit to peek inside.

Medaka smiled widely and lifted the lid all the way open and watched as the sun shining in through the open window of the cabin caused the shining treasures in the chest to flare up like they were enchanted with fire. This had to be Buggy's stash of absolutely favorite treasure from his collection. There were flawless cut diamonds and other impressive loose gemstones, gold so pure she was sure she'd be able to pinch off bits of it by just using her fingers as if it were clay, fabulous and dazzling rings, necklaces, bracelets and earrings of many styles and all of highest value.

There was only one item that truly interested Medaka enough for her to actually pick up out of the chest though. A pure gold tiara that had seven arches in total attached to the band. The band and the arches of the tiara were encrusted in thousands of tiny crushed diamonds and on the top of each arch where seven star sapphires in every hue of the rainbow. It would be perfect for her to win the game with. She packed it into the very bottom of her treasure pouch, laying her shells, feathers, flowers, and silk bandanas on top of it and shut the treasure chest.

Feeling a tiny bit guilty she wrote a short note for Buggy using the paper and peacock quill on his vanity and stuck it on the inside of the door to his cabin for him to find when he came back. He may have been a little bit of an idiot who couldn't tell she was a girl, but he did take the time to give her a pretty good treasure hunting lesson.

(Her note read as such: _To Captain Buggy, Thank you for the treasure hunting lesson you gave me._ Mr _Mohji was a jerk and locked me alone in here so I decided to go back to my crew. I did borrow a tiara from you to win the game we were playing so if you want it back just ask if we see each other again and I'll return it. If you don't say anything I'll keep it as a momento to remember you by. Thanks again from Medaka. P.S. I'm a girl_ not _a boy._ )

Medaka had figured she had been sealed in the cabin long enough and so now she would make her escape. She reached up into the hammock and pulled down all his blankets and began to quickly form a makeshift rope with them. Once she had about ten yards worth of knotted blanket she opened the window and fascened one end of the blanket securely to the hinge before climbing up to the window edge with the other end of the blanket rope in her hands. She would have one good shot at this if she wanted to sabotage the bombardment, otherwise she'd end up in the water sooner than she wanted to be.

With her feet flat against the hull of the ship Medaka took off in a swift horizontal run up the side of the ship in a long arch. When she reached the top of the arch she let go of her end of the blanket rope and grasped the lowest edge of the rail with just her fingers before clambering the rest of the way up the side and heaving herself back up onto the deck of the ship.

Down on the main deck Mohji was in the middle of finishing up preparations for the bombardment of the island. There were now carefully arranged stacks of round explosives ready and waiting next to each one of the five cannons that faced the island. On the other side of the cannons there were boxes of flints, fuzes and barrels of black powder. As swiftly and nimbly as she could manage it Medaka ran to each cannon, ducking down to avoid the sight of Mohji, and stole all the fuses she gould carry (while pulling out the prepped unlit fuses out of the cannons as she went along.)

She dumped the fuzes she gathered over the edge of the ship and wasn't surprised when Mohji finally spotted her and with surprising speed rushed over to her and snatched her up by the collar of her shirt once again.

Mohji ground his teeth together and hissed, "I saw that you little menace. If you dare steal another one of those fuses and dump it in the sea I'll... I'll…"

"While you're still thinking up a threat to use should I be taking notes or is this lesson already over?" Medaka snarked and twisted around to remove herself from his grip, landing neatly back on the deck without a single stumble.

With a cheeky and definitely mocking salute she jumped up to the top of the ship's railing and said, "Well this was fun. Good luck using those cannons without any fuses by the way! I hope your captain won't be angry with you when he makes the signal and you can't do your duty!"

She then swan dived off the edge of the rail and swam as fast as she could towards the beach, leaving Mohji up on the deck of the ship - absolutely fuming.

"This is why I hate kids! You! Get more fuses up from storage RIGHT NOW! I'm gonna blow that kid away before he can make it back to the forest!"

"But Mohji, there's a ship closing in on our position off the port side, shouldn't we defend against it?" One of his subordinates asked pointing out the rapidly approaching ship.

"Ignore it! I'm going for that brat! We'll deal with that crew when they get here. Now ready that cannon and FIRE!" Mohji ordered.

The crew scrambled quickly to fulfill his request and by the time Medaka had made it to shore and was running up the beach towards the trees everything was ready to go. Mohji gave a satisfied grin as he moved to fire the cannon.

There was a jolt of motion.

The Buggy Ball whooshed out and exploded on impact - and a blood curdling scream of pain could be heard across nearly the entire island.

* * *

Nami and Ann's journey together to the edge of the island was interrupted by the sound of a loud explosion that seemed to shake the island from the ground up to the canopy of trees. Following the explosion there was a loud scream and a cacophony of animal noises cried out from seemingly every part of the island.

"What was that!?" Ann shouted in alarm as the duck-turtle in her arms began to quack and hiss up a storm and she turned to face the direction the blast had originated from.

The answer didn't come from anyone but a loud voice Ann recognised as Dawn's was shouting from the direction of the beach in nearly as loud a tone as the explosion, "If you are a sailing with the ship under a flag with a big, stupid, red nose this is your one and only warning that if Medaka was so much as SCRATCHED from that explosion I will rip the keel from your ship myself and will FEAST UPON YOUR FLAG!"

"Medaka!?" Ann cried out in alarm before her eyes hardened in aggression, "If any one of those clownish morons even breathed aggressively on her I'll make them pay! Let's go Nami!"

Nami watched Ann speed up and rather than falling behind Nami was vaguely impressed with the other girl's ferocity and idly wondered if the bird-costume girl would actually mutiny against her own crew for hurting her friend. If that were the case it might be fun for once for Nami to sail with another person for a little while before she parted ways with her. Ann had seemed to be a genuinely nice person who had probably been swindled into joining up as a pirate from naivety.

Nami and Ann finally arrived at the beach and nearly bowled over a little girl with red hair, dressed as a pirate who was trying to sneak her way down the line of trees.

"Medaka! You're alright!" Ann shouted in relief and knelt down next to her to look her over. "What were you doing down here on the beach?"

"They were going to bombard the island to attack you all! I had to sabotage them so I tried to get rid of all their fuses." Medaka replied. "I made friends with their captain's lion while I was on their ship and it knocked the cannon over when it was lit by Mr Mohji - I'm alright though."

"Thank goodness you weren't hurt by them. I know you're a smart girl Medaka, but so help me, if you dare to approach an unknown bunch of pirates again without someone on the crew to back you up I'll...I'll...I'll ground you from playing and set you to scrubbing Dawn's decks for a week and even Luffy won't be able to stop me!" Ann scolded, her tone switching between concerned and scolding in a split second causing the girl Medaka to pout at her.

"Wait a minute. That isn't your pirate crew?" Nami asked feeling confused by the entire conversation.

"What? No! How could you even think that!" Ann denied before looking down at herself and slapping her hand to cover her blush. "Nevermind. No, I'm not one of those clown pirates - I'm a Straw Hat Pirate sailing under Captain Luffy."

"Straw hat...Luffy...?" Nami echoed in a daze and cringed, "Oh! I'm so sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I watched him get shot in the forest before I ran into you."

"He was shot?" Ann asked and sighed in relief. "Oh, he'll be fine then."

"He was shot in the head." Nami deadpanned. "I watched him fall over."

"Yes, but don't you remember what I said earlier? My captain's made of rubber." Ann explained again. "It might've knocked him over but he wouldn't be hurt by a regular bullets because they just bounce right off him."

"You can't be serious." Nami replied, in complete disbelief.

Her disbelief in Ann's statement vanished upon the arrival of Luffy breaking out from the tree line with Zoro at his side and Gaimon and a stampede of the strangest animals she had still ever seen at his heels.

Nami wondered if she actually had been killed in the forest and was now in the middle of a near-death hallucination. That had to be the explanation for such a strange situation - especially when a fluttering sparrow that seemed to be made up of woven vines and leafs fluttered over to them and began to speak. "There you are, Ann. You found Medaka, that's great! Are you hurt at all?"

"No. The Buggy Ball blew up in the air above the forest - I wasn't hurt at all. I did hear someone scream though so I think someone did get hurt by it."

Ann seemed to be counting as she pointed out each of her crewmates, "Lets see...there's Luffy...Zoro...Balloons with Dawn...and Medaka. Well it does look like everyone on our crew is accounted for. It must've been someone from the other crew that got hurt or someone else - unless you had someone with you Nami."

"No, just me. Who got hit then?" Nami asked and let out a yelp when a singed and burnt clown stumbled his way out from the forest and coughed out a puff of smoke.

"Oh! That's Captain Buggy! He's the leader of the other pirate crew." Medaka said, recognizing him despite the damage he had. "How did he get hit with the bomb though when it exploded up in the sky?"

"I hate this island and everything on it." Buggy screeched up into the sky and turned to face his ship and crew. "What the hell are all of you still doing on the ship when there's a fight to be had here on the beach! Half of you get down here right now and the other half begin the bombardment of this island! I want nothing to be left unexploded here!"

"Ooh, he's very angry." Medaka said with a wince and Ann pushed her gently towards the direction of where Dawn (the ship) was settled in the water.

"You go and stay on Dawn's deck for now, Medaka. I know you're a tough kid but you've already been lucky enough and it's my responsibility as your senior to keep you safe while teaching you how to survive at sea." Ann scolded.

"That sounds like something you made up." Medaka complained but complied with Dawn's lure tugging her in the direction where she was floating. "Don't lose Ann or else I'll never listen to your advice again."

Ann smiled and said, "Then it sounds like I have to win. BALLOON! Please come down and help me!"

Nami jumped back when a (huge!) white and black bird landed in the sand beside them and watched wearily as Ann showed it the duck-turtle she carried to let it examine the odd little bird. Balloon let out a chuffing warble and narrowed his eyes at Ann who grinned at him in return. "Sorry Balloon. I had to help her though. She would've died otherwise."

Balloon preened a few feathers on the little duck-turtle's head and now satisfied with his examination let out a 'gwark' and allowed Ann to smoothly climb on top of him and settle the duck-turtle between herself and his neck. She eyed the four clowns going for Zoro and Luffy and rushed over to help - Nami trailing behind her while wondering if it would be worth trying to make a break for it in the chaos of battle.

Zoro slumped against a tree once he and Luffy arrived down at the beach and with a grumble said, "My bad, captain. I didn't finish him off. I didn't want to lose against someone like that."

"What are you talking about? You didn't lose at all." Luffy said. "You go ahead and rest. Even Medaka would be able to take care of these idiots so I'll take care of the cleanup down here."

Zoro snorted but complied with his captain's order, falling into a light snooze against a tree overlooking the beach battle. Captain's order or not, if he saw that he was needed during the fight he would be ready and waiting to go.

Gaimon, fed up completely with the mess Buggy and his crew was making on his island, was the one to lay down the continued challenge. "You! You're the boss of these men! Get yourself and your men off my island right now! I am the guardian of this island, Gaimon. I am here to fight for the sake of my treasure - which includes these animal friends of mine!"

Buggy, still singed, smokey and irritated over being caught in the blast of his Buggy Ball, led out a growl and snarled, "Let's get this over with then! You call these animals your "treasure"? What a joke. Don't be stupid treasure is treasure and that's that."

"You could never understand how I feel!"

"Why should I bother to understand? I am the man who will get all the treasure of the ocean. All the treasure in the world is mine." Buggy bragged.

"And nobody but me can dare to own my treasure or define it for me." Gaimon retorted

"Well if you love this island and its stupid animals so much, then be prepared to die with them! I will crush you like an insect, you are like a mouse to me."

"I will never let you ruin my island, even if I die." Gaimon declared.

"Then I guess today's the day you die." Buggy quipped and began a brutal smackdown on Gaimon who refused to back away from protecting his animal friends.

Having finished off the Fuwa Acrobats and watching them run to their longboats to get back to their own ship Luffy, Ann and Balloon watched as Gaimon gave his all in his fight against Buggy.

"Why would he do that?" Nami asked as she watched alongside them, wincing when she saw how battered Gaimon was and he still wasn't giving in to Buggy's assault.

"That's what you need to do if you want to go up against a pirate." Luffy said with a grin on his face that was more determined than cheerful.

"To go against a pirate? You mean being prepared to just die pointlessly in a fight like it's nothing? Is that what going up against a pirate means to another pirate?" Nami demanded.

"No." Luffy said with a serious expression before his determined smile returned, "It means being prepared to risk your own life to fight for what you treasure most."

Nami huffed even though she could understand him felt intentionally stubborn and said, "Well if it's all the same to you I think I've had enough of all this. This is a fight between pirates now - and I'm not a pirate."

Ann looked like she was about to protest but Luffy smiled mischievously and said, "You'll need a boat if you want to leave, right? Go on and see if the landing craft on Dawn's deck is right for you before you do."

"Really? This isn't a trick?" Nami asked and remembered that this was a pirate who stopped at an island to play a GAME with his cabin girl. If it was a trick it would probably be harmless.

"Go ahead. You didn't officially meet Dawn anyway and I think you'd like to see her at least." Luffy said, and focused back on the fight between Buggy and Gaimon.

Nami was quick when she desired to be and before long she was scrambling up the side of Luffy's ship. He called it Dawn, right?

The landing craft didn't look very special in comparison to the lovely cedarwood and brass ship with green paint that she now stood on. It hardly looked like a pirate ship in fact. No cannon, no stolen loot, and no flag.

"What kind of pirate ship doesn't have a pirate flag anyway?" Nami asked as she looked up at the sails.

"That's a good point, Nami. I'll be sure to remind Luffy about it soon." A voice came up from the deck of the ship and Nami gaped in shock when she spotted the bow of the ship seem to twist in order for the figurehead to give her a smile.

"No way! You're alive!?" Nami cried out and felt faint when she watched the figurehead of the ship follow its smile and cheery wink.

The green sparrow fluttered down and steadily hovered at eye level to her before both it and the same voice came from the ship. "I'd say so. I have Medaka up in the crows nest right now so I'm keeping away from that other ship's cannons. You seem to like treasure so before you escape I wanted to let you know that those Fuwa Acrobats left Buggy's treasure out on the beach when they ran for their ship."

"And you don't care if I go after their treasure?" Nami asked.

"Luffy's not the type to hide what he means. The greatest treasure being fought for right now isn't in those boxes - it's the treasure Gaimon is fighting to protect. You seem smart - I know you understand what he means."

"Of course I do!" Nami snapped back before gritting her teeth. "I'll stay - but I'm still going to go after those boxes you mentioned. I'm not one to sit around while everyone else is distracted by fighting."

"Have fun looting and pillaging!" Dawn called down as Nami jumped back in she shallows and ran towards the beach again.

"I'm not a pirate!" Nami refuted back at the ship.

Up on the Big Top, Mohji had finally managed to gather more fuzes and looked at the shore to figure out who to focus his attack against. He spotted his captain fighting the rather stupid looking green haired man in the box who had shot him earlier and took precise aim.

Buggy heard Mohji's distinctive sounding whistle and leaped back away from Gaimon to watch what his second-in-command had in plan.

Ba-Boom!

A Buggy Ball exploded at Gaimon's feet, sending him flying high up into the air and Buggy let out a delighted cackle at the pained expression crossing over Gaimon's face.

"Gaimon!" Luffy shouted and reached into the air in order to grab the man and cushion his fall. The force of the Buggy Ball's explosion though was enough to send them back up over the trees and into the forest with a crash. Buggy scanned the beach and let out a snarl when he spotted (that THIEF) Nami bagging up items from his treasure that should've been safely secured on his ship.

"Oh no you don't, you miserable little thief!" Buggy growled and shouted, "Chop! Chop! Festival!"

Nami yelped and clutched onto her collected items while trying to fight away Buggy's separate body parts that had been split into tiny chunks and were flying all around them. He pummeled at her using his free floating body parts at intense speeds.

"Nami, drop that loot and get out of here or else he'll keep coming after you." Ann shouted over at her.

Nami glared over to where Ann was now perched on top of Balloon and shouted, "No way! You want me to leave the treasure? I'd never do that! Why should I give up my treasure?"

"What do you mean 'my treasure'?" Buggy snarled.

Nami turned to him and shouted, "That's right! I am a master thief who steals from pirates! And I stole my map and my treasure!"

"No way! Those are mine!" Buggy shouted back.

Nami scoffed and said, "It isn't yours unless you get away with it! That's a basic fact about pirating!"

"A criminal lecturing criminal, what a joke. You need to be taught a few lessons yourself it seems." Buggy grumbled.

"What? I'd never stoop so low as to take lessons from you!" Nami shouted back.

"Then suffer the consequences, you thief!"

"Damnit, he's all over the place!" Ann shouted watching in concern as Buggy focused his relentless attack against Nami.

"Hey! Big nose-stupid Bug!" Luffy's voice called out from where he finally got back from being tossed away by the Buggy Ball blast.

"What did you call me, you stupid straw hat brat!" Buggy screeched and abandoned his assault of Nami to focus back on the biggest pest of them all. Him leaving Ann and Nami, however still didn't leave them free from assault.

"Oh my splendid siren! Fate has brought us together again!" Cabaji crooned as he used a highly acrobatic maneuver to snatch Ann off from Balloon's back and attempt to cradle her to himself.

"Eek! Feather Sleep!" Ann screeched as she tore a feather from her outfit and smacked Cabaji across the face with it, knocking him out momentarily and allowing her to pry herself away. "That's so embarrassing!"

"Oh look, I think he likes you." Nami teased playfully and tried not to flinch when Ann glared at her. "What? At least if someone is flirting with you it's a sign that it'll be easy to get what you want from them, right?"

"Being hit on is embarrassing." Ann hissed over to Nami. "So's having people think I do things with people. I always feel like I'll die whenever it happens."

"Aww, but you're so cute. I bet you have people flirting with you all the time." Nami cooed causing Ann to grow red with even more embarrassment.

"The thief has a point so please don't be embarrassed, my lovely lass." Cabaji said, having awakened himself from his enchanted daze. "Even if you are a subordinate of an idiot my appreciation of you remains the same!"

Another Buggy Ball exploded on the beach and Balloon screeched in pain when a burning ember hit him. Ann, having to hear his screech of pain while still suffering from her embarrassment over Cabaji's words and actions, completely snapped her final thread of tolerance.

"That's it! I've had enough of all of you idiots!" Focusing on draining every last bit of dormant magic left from the feathers making up her outfit Ann began to glow white again as she began her spell. "With the Power freely given to me from Balloon, the free Roc that flies by the light of the sky: Fall forth and rise up from this place and place a curse upon all who fly under the flag of the Buggy Pirates for one year and one day!"

A ripple seemed to pass across the sky originating from the point where Ann stood and an invisible swell of...something seemed to rise up from the island.

Nami nearly was overcome with sickness when she felt the pressure in the air change and she shouted. "Take cover! There's going to be a hailstorm!"

"You've got to be joking." Cabaji said with a scowl but widened his eyes when he spotted the dark thundercloud that seemed to be forming just above the Big Top with ominous looking lightning scatting through them like splashes of glitter. "What in the...?"

The sky then seemed to fall apart. Hailstones fell from the clouds like stones. The mast and sails they hit bent and moaned seemingly in pain, with the sails threatening to be torn like they were made from paper. This storm, supernaturally created seemed only intent on driving away the Big Top and the crew that went along with it. It threatened like the screech of an eagle with its intent to destroy anything and everything belonging to the Buggy pirates.

Ann groaned under the weight of the curse that rapidly drained her of all the energy she had and sank to her knees even as she kept fueling it with her magic.

Seemingly getting a second wind the duck-poodles, zebra-ostriches, peacock-cats, crow-snakes, rooster-foxes, and even duck-turtles began another round of attacking the Buggy Pirates, causing them to flee into the storm above their ship with no other alternative to turn to.

The duck-turtles swarmed Cabaji like feathery, shelled, cannonballs and relentlessly attacked him until he began to run, just like his subordinates had earlier.

"I can't believe we lost to those thieves, even if one was a heavenly siren!" Cabaji groaned as he ran by a fighting Luffy and Buggy while he looked at the decimated remains of their ship and crewmates who were onboard.

"We're not thieves. We're pirates!" Luffy said proudly and let out a gleeful shishishishi.

"I'm going to sleep now, Luffy." Ann said as she wobbled a bit while Balloon rushed to her side with just enough time to collapse in exhaustion a few yards away from where Zoro was laying.

"Ok Ann. Just leave the rest to me." Luffy said with a nearly manic grin as he made his way towards the last one standing - Buggy.

"You said you were pirates but that is a witch for sure!" Buggy accused as he pulled himself back together again with just his hands separated from his arms, holding a set of knives in each grip, ready for another attack.

"Yes, but she's a pirate. We're all pirates and we're going to the Grand Line!" Luffy confirmed.

Buggy scoffed and said, "Don't be stupid. That place isn't a place where idiots like you can just go because you want to. Why would you want to go there?"

"Because I'm gonna be the king of the pirates!" Luffy said with complete confidence.

Buggy couldn't hold back a mocking laugh, "Gya-ha-ha-ha! Don't be a fool! If you were the pirate king, I would be the god of all pirates. So forget it you brat - you'll die if you even try!"

"Shut up. Come on and show me what you've got!"

The two pirate captains clashed in a furious flurry of punches (from Luffy) and slashes (from Buggy) as they wailed on each other. Buggy, being the type of guy he was, couldn't resist making a few snarky comments against Luffy. "That hat you're wearing is stupid, by the way! It reminds me of a red haired idiot I know!"

Luffy ducked a slash and being Luffy, couldn't resist asking, "Do you mean Shanks?"

"Of course I mean Shanks! What other red haired idiot is there!? WAIT A MINUTE! HOW DO YOU KNOW SHANKS!?"

"I met him a long time ago and he let me borrow his hat. I'll only return it after I've become the greatest pirate there is. It's nearly my greatest treasure." Luffy replied almost conversationally, despite the fact that he and Buggy were still assaulting each other.

"Gya-ha-ha-ha! Well then you'll never get a chance to give that dirty old hat back because I'll crush you right here and now! That's the worst treasure I've ever heard of - ant that includes this stupid island and the stupid animals on it!"

"Well besides Dawn this hat really is my greatest treasure so don't ever try to hurt it!" Luffy warned.

"Oh? You mean like THIS!" With a vicious downward stab Buggy clipped the edge of the straw hat's rim, and the knives sliced it in three evenly spaced cuts.

Luffy crossed his eyes to look up at the damage and a thunderous expression crossed his face. "You hurt...my treasure..."

"Gya-ha-ha-ha! So what if I did?" Buggy split himself again like he had against Nami and swarmed around Luffy, who had gone still and was clutching his fists at his sides and gritting his teeth in absolute fury.

"Rubber Jackknife." Buggy's swarm of parts came to a complete standstill as his eyes nearly bulged out of his head. Luffy had, with stupidly accurate precision, managed to kick Buggy in his...Buggy Balls so to speak...while his hips had been floating about a hundred feet behind Luffy's back.

Buggy took a wheezing breath and hissed, "I will never forgive you for that! CHOP! CHOP! Come Together!"

How odd. He felt shorter than normal. When he spotted Nami grinning as she held down his torso though he realized what happened.

"What? Are you looking for this?" Nami asked, falsely coyly.

"My body! Give that back!" Buggy shouted.

"Only if you go away." Nami said and defiantly crossed her arms. "Your ship will sink in that hailstorm above it if you stay here anyway."

Buggy grit his teeth together and said, "Fine. Give it back."

Nami released Buggy's torso and he united it together with his head and limbs. He looked thoughtfully down at his knifes and then back at Nami but had to stumble back when he saw Luffy, now standing between himself and Nami.

"Goodbye, Bug! RUBBER-"

Buggy spotted Luffy's arms stretched far, far back and remembering his way of removing Cabaji from his presence earlier shouted, "NO! Wait!"

"BAZOOKA!" Buggy went flying and with impressive precision he arched up into the stormcloud (getting shocked by a few bolts of lightning while up there) before falling down, more crispy then ever, flat onto the deck of his ship off shore.

"I win! That felt great to kick Bug's butt! Now he better leave or I'll do it again." Luffy said as he watched Buggy's ship in silent anticipation, waiting for what would come next.

What a mess. Buggy pulled himself back together and glared up at the storm brewing above his ship and ground his teeth together when a hailstone struck him in the eye. He hated magic, it should be left out on the Grand Line or hidden away out on secluded islands where it belonged. "Let's go men. We need to gather reinforcements if we want to go after a crew with a witch on it."

"But Captain, we can still take them! Who cares if there's a little storm right now." Mohji retorted but quailed under the absolutely furious expression on Buggy's face when he glared over at him.

Buggy grit his teeth together and said, "Just get us out of here. We'll have revenge one day but this damn curse will sink us for certain if we stay. Set sail men! Let's get out of this storm!"

Holding back a shiver Mohji responded. "Aye Captain! You heard him! Set sail for the horizon! We're getting out of here!"

Nami watched in fascination as the storm above the Big Top seemed to literally chase away the ship as it sailed away, leaving the sky filled with blue sky and puffy white friendly clouds once again. She was now free from being pursued by Buggy and his crew it seemed.

"Thank you for saving me." Nami said. She would be dead right now if it hadn't been for him so she would swallow her 'shame' of being indebted to a pirate for now. Maybe Luffy and his crew really didn't belong on her personal pirate spectrum.

"No problem." Luffy simply replied.

Gaimon sobbed in relief upon seeing that his hybrid animal friends had come out alive after the clown poacher's invasion and attack. Ann was slumped up against Balloon, fast asleep with a duck-turtle hybrid snuggled into her lap while Zoro was laying flat on his back beneath a tree sleeping soundly even as a tiger striped and whiskered horse snuffed curiously at his hair.

"You guys won!" Medaka shouted as she scrambled across the beach, finally released by Dawn from her deck and she jumped up to tackle Luffy in a delighted hug, causing him to laugh with delight.

"Shishishi! Of course we did!"

"You and your crew helped protect my friends. Thank you so much! You never told me your name though, straw hat."

"I'm Monkey D Luffy. The man who will become pirate king." Luffy declared.

"The "D" stands for Daring." Dawn's sparrow spoke up cheekily from where she was perched on Luffy's hat.

"Didn't I say to stop doing that?" Ann sleepily muttered before falling back to sleep again.

"Wh-what?" Gaimon asked, nearly falling over from shock.

"I'm going to become the pirate king and get One Piece." Luffy said bluntly.

"One Piece you say? You're really planning to go to the Grand Line like you told that Bug fellow, aren't you? Don't underestimate it. That place is the hell's coffin. I have seen pirates that escaped from the Grand Line. They were spiritless like the undead. Whether something horrible happened to them, or whether they met terrible monsters. Not one person was able to say anything. One Piece is no longer a mere legend but a dream in a dream." Gaimon warned.

"Where is the Grand Line, anyway?" Luffy asked.

"Who knows." Gaimon answered, still in a daze.

"I do have a map you know." Nami said as she unrolled it and showed it to Luffy and Gaimon who peered at it with interest while Medaka squished between them to get a glimpse for herself as well.

A beat later Luffy said, "Hey, you wanna know something Bush-old-man? I don't understand maps at all."

Gaimon nodded his head and said, "Well in that case we're the same."

"I can read a topographic map, but not sea charts." Medaka admitted.

Nami snatched the map away and muttered, "You really would be lost forever without a navigator, wouldn't you."

"I sure would." Luffy said without a hint of shame. "I'm sure we'll find the One Piece. I have good luck and a good ship."

"Where do you get so much confidence from?" Gaimon asked.

"We'll definitely find it and show you it one day." Luffy said with a wider grin.

"We?" Nami asked as she looked at him suspiciously.

"In order to find treasure, losing your life doesn't matter." Luffy said as he fondly clutched at his straw hat.

"It was that passion that changed my life." Gaimon said with an expression of gloom settling over his face.

"Wa-Wait, what are you talking about?" Nami asked.

"It was 20 years ago. I landed along with my companions on this island as a pirate. We came to find the treasure that lay on this island. Though the Captain searched this island for a month I checked the top cliff and I couldn't believe my eyes. Five chests all mine to be opened. That was when I fell and got stuck in this box. When I came to, my companions had already set sail. They had left me behind!"

"They left you?" Medaka asked with a quaver in her usually confidant voice.

Gaimon nodded his head and said, "That one glance at the treasure has never once left my mind. But those clown poachers couldn't be deterred by either my weapons or my nakama! When pirates, poachers or other people come to this island in search of treasure I just shoot them or get help from my nakama in order to scare them away. That treasure is mine!" Gaimon declared passionately.

"There's no doubt about it." Medaka agreed.

"They're yours." Dawn said with a grin on her lure's face.

"Gaimon, I understand. We'll help you get those treasures." Nami said, with determination in her voice.

"Really? Aren't you a thief of pirates?" Luffy asked as he scratched his forehead in confusion.

Nami's face transformed from sympathetic to enraged as she shouted, "You! That's rude! Even I can be emotionally moved you know."

"Balloon, you keep an eye on Ann and Zoro while we're gone, alright?" Luffy said and Balloon fluffed out his feathers and squawked in a way that seemed to mean "Of course I will you rubber brained captain. I'm the best guardian ever."

So up the island tiers went Luffy, Dawn, Medaka, Nami and Gaimon with a menagerie of hybrid animals following along - aside from the bird dominant hybrids who stayed in the clearing with Ann, Zoro and Balloon. Within about a half hour of walking the group finally made it to the top tier where the base of a rocky plateau shot out of the ground over three hundred meters up into the sky.

"So it's up there, huh?" Luffy said as he looked up to the top of the rocky cliff.

"I haven't been here in a long time. Finally the time has come! Today's a good day! I'm counting on you, straw-hat!" Gaimon said with an excited grin on his face.

"Okay! Rubber Rocket!" Luffy shouted as he stretched his arms up to the top of the cliff and pulled himself up with a snap.

"Alright! How is it? Do you see it?" Gaimon asked after a minute of silence.

"What is he doing?" Nami asked out loud as she shielded her eyes with her hand while she looked up the cliff.

"Luffy? What's happening?" Medaka shouted up.

"I've got them: five treasure chests!" Luffy called down.

"Finally I've got the treasure! Treasure! Can you bring them down? My treasure? Hurry! Hurry!" Gaimon said, practically vibrating with excitement.

"No!"

A moment of incredulous silence passed.

"What?" Gaimon asked.

"I said no. I don't want to give them to you." Luffy said, crossing his arms defiantly as he looked over the edge of the cliff.

"What nonsense are you saying? Stop joking around." Nami shouted up as the feeling of betrayal crawled up her back and she found herself uneased. How could she have fallen for being emotionally invested with a pirate after all? How could she have been so naive again?

"Yeah! Those treasures are Gaimon's! Don't be so mean!" Medaka shouted up.

"It's okay." Gaimon said, even as tears dribbled down his face.

"It's not okay!" Nami shouted at him, feeling aggravated.

Medaka nodded in agreement and said, "That's right! You've been guarding that treasure forever, it should be yours."

"Straw-hat, you're-you're really a nice guy!" Gaimon said even as he cried harder, shocking both Nami and Medaka.

Feeling suspicious Nami turned to Gaimon and asked, "What do you mean?"

Sniffling with the emotional onslaught Gaimon said, "I had thought of it before. That maybe... even though it's unbearable to think it... there's nothing inside, is there?"

"Yeah. They're all empty." Luffy confirmed bluntly.

"No way! The treasure you've guarded for 20 years are only empty boxes?" Medaka asked, feeling astonished at the unfairness of it all.

Feeling settled now that she had been proven wrong about Luffy (again) Nami agreed and said, "Yes. It's something that happens a lot with treasures. Sometimes you reach them after the treasures have been taken. That's why I steal from pirates above treasure hunting for myself. It's a lot more reliable to get treasure that way."

"So searching for treasure really is a trial for pirates." Medaka said.

"Wasting a lifetime, sacrificing your own life, only to get nothing at the end. There are many pirates like that." Gaimon agreed, as his animal nakama pushed along to comfort him by licking away his sad tears.

"Don't be so sad, old man! Good thing we got here in the 20th year. If no one came in another 30 years you could have wound up dead." Luffy said, as he landed with a tuck and roll so he wouldn't bounce away. "Now let's finish up our real treasure hunt Medaka and see if we can find some food. We should have a celebration ready for when Zoro and Ann wake up."

"You missed it, Luffy. I already won." Medaka said proudly as she grinned up at him.

Dawn laughed from her perch on Luffy's hat and said, "It's true. While you all were fighting on the beach Medaka showed me her loot. She's the winner of the game all right."

Luffy, childish as he was, actually pouted and grumbled, "No fair! I was so close! I even found a shell with six colors first before looking for any other colors!"

"Really? I had a lot of doubles since I was able to find some treasure on the other ship. Take a look at this though!" Medaka reached into her pouch and pulled out the sparkly tiara. Luffy, Gaimon and Nami each made appropriate 'oohs' and 'ahs' while they leaned in to look at the treasure closer.

Nami was especially appreciative. "That's a very nice find. From what I know about lost treasures here in the East Blue that looks like it could be the crown of the youngest princess from the kingdom of Cozia. The kingdom was mysteriously destroyed during a storm about eleven years ago and the entire royal family went missing along with their citizens. A lot of their treasures went missing afterwards and their rarity makes them even more valuable. You could sell that for a lot of money!"

Medaka smiled but stuffed the tiara back into her bag. "That's really interesting! But I don't want to sell it. I'm going to save it and the rest of what I found today since they're my first official pirate treasures."

* * *

The celebration they had started in the afternoon and went on long into the night, Luffy and Medaka were dancing like they'd forgotten how to stand still. Luffy was moving like his limbs were made of spaghetti and Medaka's face was an epic picture of pure excitement. When Zoro and Ann woke up following their post-battle naps the food and drinks were ready to go.

The fruit-wine made by Gaimon was full bodied and sweet and whet everyone's appetites for more food. Ann and Luffy seemed to be gorging themselves from the pace and amounts they were consuming but once Ann explained how much energy she had actually used in the fight it made a little more sense.

Nami ended up indulging herself eating more than she'd thought she would. She started on the refreshing coconut soup that felt warm in her own stomach. It had been milky white, with islands of orange sweet potato floating through the base. A delicious fish dish had followed. Fleshy pink strips of trout that were garnished with dashings of green herbs that Nami didn't know the names of but liked the taste of. Large sections of the fish were served with a zesty fruit sauce that Gaimon said was his specialty. It tasted like it was made with lemons. Nami vaguely wished it had been tangerine flavored but mentally waved the thought away.

'Should I sail with them or not?' Nami wondered as the night settled in and everyone fell asleep one by one around her. Nami looked over to Medaka and the pouch that laid beside her with a single treasure that would probably be enough to bring her all the way up to 100,000,000 beris without having to look for anything else. Nami huffed and reminded herself, 'I'm a thief who steals from pirates and these are all pirates, right?' She promised herself she would make her decision by the time the sun came up.

The next morning had Zoro and Medaka dragging crates of leftover fruit and island wine provided by Gaimon over to Dawn who took over picking up the crates and storing them away carefully with her ropes and vines (and two larger monkey lures). Luffy, on the other hand, was talking with Gaimon down on the beach one last time before they departed. He looked down the beach as he did, having faith that Nami would eventually show up instead of sailing off on her own.

"Thank you for the food and drinks! Are you really going to stay on this island, old man?"

"Yeah Straw-hat. Even if there are no treasures here, there are other things for me to protect."

"Things to protect?"

Gaimon gave a few appreciative pets to a nearby platypus-sheep and said, "I have lived with these guys for 20 years through hard times and happy times. I can't just leave them. Knowing there's no treasure I feel truly free for the first time. From now I'd like to live my life the way I want. In reality I've begun to enjoy living in a box as long as I have my friends with me."

"Shishishishi! I see! That's too bad because you're an interesting old man! The strange creatures are your true nakama huh? Though you're actually the strangest creature on the island, aren't you."

"What did you say?!" Gaimon demanded as Luffy laughed at his reaction. He smiled when he spotted Nami making her way down the beach towards them and with a delighted expression he ran over to her, practically bouncing in his excitement.

"So you're gonna be a member of my crew now, right?" Luffy asked with a grin while Nami ignored his smile as she made her way across the beach.

"I'm not a pirate. I'm just cooperating with you and your crew for a short time while it serves my purpose, remember that." Nami said, but looked excitedly up at Dawn who was grinning back down at her. "I will sail with you as a navigator for now since it seems if I go along with you guys I'll be able to see some interesting things and find a lot more treasure."

Down a little ways from where they were standing and closer to the edge of the forest, Ann was giving a teary farewell of her own to the hybrid creatures she had befriended. "You guys are so special! You'd better stay safe and take care of each other understand?"

The duck-turtle was cuddling close to her and letting out very sad quacking noises. Every time Ann tried to break away and move towards the shoreline where Dawn was waiting it would follow and make the saddest quacking she had ever heard.

Gaimon grumbled a little bit before saying, "Take that duck-turtle with you and spare me its crying. She would've died if you hadn't helped her out anyway."

"Really?" Ann asked, even as she scooped the duck-turtle up into her arms happily. "I thought you said you wanted to protect each and every animal on this island."

"I won't stop one of my friends from doing something that makes them happy even if that means she wants to go with you. You're a good kid and as long as you don't tell anyone where she came from I'll trust you to take care of her."

"Thank you so much!" Ann said and smiled down at the duck-turtle. "I think I'll call you Mishell Greenbill. Let me introduce you to Very Berry and Mango Tango since you've already met Balloon."

Once they were packed up and on their way Gaimon, surrounded by his animal friends, sent them off with cheering and happy tears at they sailed away from his island. "See you! Take care! Goodbye Straw-hat! Work hard towards your dreams in my place! If it's you, then I'm sure you'll get it. The legendary treasure One Piece! Then you should buy the whole world!"

The gentle wind blowing from the island billowed Dawn's sails as she chased the horizon, skipping across the white crested waves like a merry child in a field of daisies, ready and excited for what the new adventures lay before them.

To be continued...

 

  
 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up Next: Penguins, pirates, marines, cats, and chaos. The penguins and cats are new but otherwise it's just another day in the life of the Straw Hat Pirates.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for picking this story to read, it really is appreciated. As you can tell from this chapter this SI-esque AU version of One Piece is already a little off the rails canon wise. Will the canon straw hats appear in this story? Of course - though not all of them will be met in the way we met them in the original story. There will be a bit of bending of One Piece material but I can at least say that anyone joining the crew at least up 'til the Grand Line have shown up in some form or another of One Piece media. Expect more AUness, more world exploration, a pinch of magic, more adventure and random references both obscure and not. Please review and let me know what you think of the beginning.


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